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1 779-1 879. 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION 



BURNING OF FAIRFIELD, 



CONNECTICUT, 



BRITISH TROOPS UNDER GOVERNOR TRYON, 



JULY 8th, 1779. 



NEW TOPvK : 

A. S. BARNES & CO., PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS, 

III AND 113 William Street. 

18 79. 



V> .\'. 



<c- 



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OFFICERS 



Rev, SAMUEL OSGOOD, D.D., LL.D., 
SAMUEL MOREHOUSE, 
WM. A. BEERS, 



President. 

Treasurer. 
Secretary. 



VICE-PRESIDENTS: 



FREDERICK BRONSON, 
MORRIS W. LYON. 
HENRY J. BEERS. 
SAMUEL GLOV^ER. 
HENRY W. CURTISS. 
A. W. SANFORD. 
EDMUND HOBART 
ISAAC JENNINGS. 
BURR BARTRAM. 
JAMES A. COLE. 
GEORGE A. PHELPS. 
Hon. p. T. BARNUM. 
Hon. S. p. BEARDSLEY. 
PASCHAL SHEFFIELD. 
FRANCIS D. PERRY. 
JULIUS PIKE. 
STEPHEN MOREHOUSE. 
EPHRAIM H. BURR. 
MOSES G. BETTS. 
CHAS. B. WAKELEY. 
J. M. MOREHOUSE. 
LEWIS BURR. 
ALANSON ALLEN. 
ZALMON B. BRADLEY. 
HENRY BRADLEY. 
ANSON BIBBINS. ■ 



FREDERICK STURGES. 
O. W. JONES. 
HENRY ROWLAND. 
THEODORE SALTUS. 
Rev. p. S. McCABE. 
H. W. POPE. 
CHARLES CARTER. 
DAVID TRUBEE. 
D. M. REDFIELD, 
HENRY L. MILLS. 
JAMES R SMITH. 
FREDERICK MARQUAND. 
EDWIN SHERWOOD. 
JONATHAN GODFREY. 
GEORGE BULKLEY. 
ANDREW P. WAKEMAN. 
BURR OSBORN. 
DAVID BEERS. 
ALBERT TURNEY. 
WILLIAM BURR. 
J. G. MOREHOUSE. 
BENJ. PENFIELD. 
C. H. FRENCH. 
OLIVER BURR. 
T. M. BANKS. 
CHAS. ROCKWELL. 



JULIAN W. CURTISS. 
HARRY MILLS. 
HERBERT KNAPP. 
H. N. KNAPP. 



MARSHALS: 



WM. B. GLOVER. 
WALTER JENNINGS. 
EDWARD TAFT. 
HENRY J. BEERS, Jr. 



COMMITTEES, 



EXECUTIVE : 

O. B. JENNINGS. FREDERICK BRONSON. FRANCIS BULKLEY. 

SAMUEL MOREHOUSE. AUGUSTUS JENNINGS. JOHN H. GLOVER. 

HENRY C. STURGES. CHAS. H. PHELPS. DAVID TRUBEE. 

SAMUEL ROWLAND, BARLOW HILL. MORRIS W. LYON. 



FINANCE: 



SAMUEL MOREHOUSE. BARLOW HILL. SAMUEL OSGOOD. 

AUGUSTUS JENNINGS. 



MUSIC-dNSTRUMENTAL :) 



WM. A. BEERS. 



DAVID TRUBEE. 



MUSIC-(VOCAL:) 

JOHN H. WOOD. ANDREW WAKEMAN 



DECORATION : 

HENRY C. STURGES. FREDERICK BRONSON. CHARLES H. PHELPS. 



O. B.JENNINGS. 

ISAAC JENNINGS. 



ENTERTAINMENT: 

FRANCIS BULKLEY. 
DAVID TRUBEE. 



M. W. LYON. 
C. H. PHELPS. 



COMMITTEES 



PLATFORM, SEATS AND TABLES. 



O. B. JENNINGS. 
ISAAC JENNINGS. 



SAMUEL MOREHOUSE. 
AUGUSTUS JENNINGS. 



SAMUEL ROWLAND 



JAMES S. COLE. 



CARRIAGES. 



SAMUEL ROWLAND. 



PRINTING, ADVERTISING AND INVITATIONS. 



WM. A. BEERS, (Ex-officio.) 



SAMUEL OSGOOD. 
JAMES K. LOMBARD. 



PUBLICATION 



SAMUEL MOREHOUSE. 
WILLIAM A. BEERS. 



LADIES COMMITTEE 



Mrs. HUNTINGTON, 



Mrs. H. T. CURTISS. 
Mrs. CHAS. PHELPS. 
Mrs. FRED'K BRONSON. 
Mrs. S. MOREHOUSE. 
Mrs. SAM'L GLOVER. 
Miss SUSAN HOBART. 
Miss DORA BULKLEY. 



Mrs. a. V. S. SCHENCK. 
Mrs. GEORGE BULKLEY. 
Mrs. THEO. TURNEY. 
Mrs. T. BROOKE. 
Mrs. burr PERRY. 
Miss ABBY NICHOLLS. 
Miss HANNAH HOBART. 
Miss R. ROWLAND. 



President. 

Mrs.SAM'L OSGOOD 
Mrs. W. a. BEERS. 
Mrs. J. K. LOMBARD 
Mrs. a. B. JENNINGS. 
Mrs. R. a. CURTISS. 
Mrs. henry L. MILLS. 
Mrs. BENJ. BETTS. 



INTRODUCTION 



The mind of our time is becoming decidedly his- 
torical, and the idea is gaining ground that in the 
study of man, as of nature, the knowledge of facts 
is the best way to ascertain principles and to order 
conduct. We Americans are entering generously 
into this movement. With us, in our literary career, 
history has come in advance of poetry, and, of late, 
the whole nation has formed itself into a history 
class, and for three years our people have been read- 
ing together their Centennial records, and are to keep 
it up for four years to come, until the festival of 
peace in 1883. As a nation we celebrated the great 
Centennial of 1876, and each town has been earnest 
to add its own testimony to whatever has been im- 
portant in its own annals. The people of the old 
Town of Fairfield joined with the 'whole country in 
that jubilee, and in due time, Fairfield makes this 
unpretending offering of its own local record to the 
common treasury of patriotism. 

We know very well that our most conspicuous date 
is not of a jubilant character, and that it notes not a 
victory, but a disaster. We therefore called the occa- 
sion not a celebration but a commemoration, and we 
determined to have a quiet, thoughtful, neighborly, 
and patriotic reunion, without noise and revelry, with 
due remembrance, in prose and poetry, of the great 



calamity of a hundred years ago, with wholesome 
lessons from able speakers upon the duties and hopes 
of good citizens, with sufficient hospitality to refresh 
and cheer our guests in the mid-day interval, and with 
patriotic and devout music to stir and uplift the assem- 
bly. We mean to be wholly honest with ourselves 
and our friends, and to let the occasion speak for 
itself without any sham, clap-trap or pretension. 
The task of preparation was divided between effi- 
cient committees, and its own duty was assigned to 
each proper quarter. The result more than gratified 
our anticipations. The commemoration appears to 
have been pleasing, impressive, instructive and whole- 
some, without a single incident to mar its harmony, 
without the least sign of disorder, with the hearty 
concurrence of all classes of our residents, and a 
large attendance of visitors, and with a certain ear- 
nest attention and genial fellowship, that did honor 
alike to hosts and guests, and will be gratefully asso- 
ciated with the future of the town and neighborhood. 
It is due to the principal speakers, especially to the 
author of the historical address, to have it understood 
that Fairfield has other records than those of disaster 
and that since the destruction of its chief buildings, 
its residents have not only been able to restore its 
beauty, but in conspicuous cases, as the published 
addresses testify, they have written their names upon 
the culture and history of the nation. It is perhaps 
well enoueh known what eminence the Fairfield 
clergy have won, but the records of the bench and 



9 

bar have been far less known. It is interesting to read 
in the Rev. Dr. Beardsley's Life and Times of Wil- 
liam Samuel Johnson, that on the 9th of January, 
1812, while the Supreme Court was sitting in Fair- 
field, Dr. Johnson walked in and took a seat at the 
bar. '' The presence " says a cotemporary, '' of this 
venerable and celebrated counsellor., who has often 
been styled the father of the bar in Connecticut, 
and who has probably not appeared in a court of 
justice for twenty-seven years, attracted the attention 
of all who were present." Shortly after the adjourn- 
ment, the legal men who were there appointed a 
committee to express their respect for him in his 
private and his public character, and Dr. Johnson 
made a handsome reply. The names of Samuel B. 
Sherwood, Roger M. Sherman, Matthew B. Whittle- 
sey and James Gould appear on this Committee, and 
show how strong a hold Fairfield had upon the legal 
mind of that day. 

The Decoration Committee carried out their pur- 
pose of cheering and enlarging the fellowship of the 
occasion by displaying the flags of the great nations 
of the world, especially remembering France, our 
ally of old, and England, once our enemy, but now 
our friend, and as such invited to our assembly, alike 
by our note to her Minister and by placing her flag 
near our own, an act which mingled courtesy to the 
mother country, with a quiet and dignified intimation 
that America, once so feeble, is now great enough to 
honor the great of the earth by her hospitable regard. 



lO 

The Committee of Publication send this record of 
the commemoration forth to the people of Fairfield, 
in the hope that it is but the beginning of the good 
work of town enterprise and public spirit. Perhaps 
in 1889, when this town will have completed its 
quarter of a thousand years, and the nation will hold 
the Centennial of its established Constitution and 
the inauguration of Washington, its first President, 
the commemoration may be remembered in a more 
grand and festive celebration. Perhaps after a cen- 
tury, in 1979, copies of this pamphlet will be read by 
Fairfield people, who can recall what their grand- 
fathers said to them about the day, July 8th, 1879, 
that we now commemorate. 

Samuel Osgood, 
James K. Lombard, 
Samuel Morehouse, 
William A. Beers, 

Committee of Publication. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES. 



I. MORNING. 

Reception of the Governor and Staff at the Depot. 

_;;^SSEMBLT ON THE jjrREEN, 11 O'CLOCK p-- J^- 

Prayer. 

During which the Old Flag of thirteen stars will be at half-mast, in token of 
sympathy with our ancestors. 

Singing of Commemoration Hymn. 

Raising of the Old Flag, and display of the colors of England and America, 
ill token of reconciliation and good will. 

National Airs of both Countries, 

By the Band. 

Historical Address, . . By Rev. E. E. Rankin, D. D. 

Singing, ...... By United Choirs. 

Original Poem, .... Rev. James K. Lombard, 

II. NOON. 

Intermission. 

During which there will be a Concert by Band and Luncheon on the Green. 

Ill, AFTERNOON. 

Singing, .... Whittier's Centennial Hymn. 
Address, . . By Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D., L.L. D. 

Singing, By The United Choirs. 

Music, By the Band. 

Addresses, ....... By Guests. 

Music, . By the Band. 

Escorting the Governor to the Depot. 



I-MORNING. 



The President, immediately upon the arrival of the 
procession with the Governor and the escort at the 
Green, called the assembly to order in these words : 

" We meet, fellow citizens and friends, here to-day 
under a cloudy and not wholly promising sky, and 
our pleasant town is threatened by water, as she was 
threatened a century ago by fire. But now, as always, 
our New England pluck is equal to the hour. 
Whether wet or dry, we are here in the spirit of our 
stout old fathers and mothers, and the Yankee heart 
knows not only how to rise, like the Phenix, from its 
ashes, but like the dove from the deluge. It looks 
as if we might be compelled to hold our exercises in 
the church, the old Church of the Prime Ancient 
Parish, of which the orator is pastor. In that case, 
and in any event, it is well for us, here, in presence 
of our Chief Magistrate and under God's heaven, to 
make our position sure by saluting the good old flag 
of the Union, with loyal hearts and to the music of 
the Star Spangled Banner." 

After the band had played that National air, the 
President announced that the sky promised better 
weather, and that the assembly would continue to 
keep their places in the open air. " First of all, we 
give glory to our God and the God of our fathers, 



14 



and ask His blessing upon ourselves and our children.' 
The Rev. B. G. Relyea, of Green's Farm, formerly the 
West Parish of Fairfield, offered the prayer of com 
memoration, and the order of the day was carried out. 



COMMEMORATION HYMN. 
fairfield, conn., 

1779- July, 8th, 1879. 



" Thou shalt bless the Lord, thy God, for the good land, which He hath 
given thee." — Deut. 8-io. 

Father, whose tender care, 
All we, Thy children, share, 

Bless Thou our town. 
Teach us to walk aright. 
Fill our souls with Thy light, 
And aid us by Thy might, 

Wrong to tread down. 

Ever Thy mercies reign, 
Ever through joy and pain 

Feel we Thy hand. 
That led through flame and strife, 
Through years with anguish rife. 
Up from death into life 

Our noble land. 

Breathe forth Thy blessing, Lord ! 
Fix in each heart Thy word. 

Truth undefiled. 
O'er the joined flags above 
May Thine own Spirit move 
Binding with lasting love 

Mother and child. 

Tune— Italian Hymn. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS, 

by Rev. Edward E. Rankin, D. D. 

In the summer of 1637, the coming of EngHsh 
soldiers into this region became the occasion for 
founding this town in the wilderness. A hundred 
and forty-two years later, and just a century ago, 
another army under the same flag made it to pass 
through the ordeal of fire. 

In commemorating the latter event we are remind- 
ed of the former and it is fitting to give some attention 
to the years in which Fairfield was forming its charac- 
ter and history before its conflagration. 

The savage Pequot tribe had filled the hearts of 
many in the colonies with dismay and dread. In the 
hostile measures pursued for its destruction some of 
the chief mamstrates of Connecticut were commission- 
ed to accompany the troops sent out to conquer the 
subtle foe. Their counsel it was thought would assist 
in directinor the valor of the soldiers and brine the 
protracted conflict to a close. 

Thus it came to pass that when Capt. Mason push- 
ed his way to this hitherto unexplored portion of the 
colony, Roger Ludlow, its deputy Governor, who had 
held the same office in Massachusetts and was now 
living in Windsor accompanied the troops. 

The battle, fought two miles from the place we now 
occupy, brought an end to the merciless war. 



i6 

After silence had settled over Sasco Swamp, amid 
whose tangled thickets most of the Indian warriors had 
been slain, the opportunity was used to explore the 
country near to the scene of battle. This result- 
ed in the return of Mr. Ludlow with eisfht or ten 
families from Windsor, to make here their permanent 
abode. 

They were soon joined by others from Watertown 
and Concord in Massachusetts, and thus within a few 
years the Indian settlement of Un-quo-wa became the 
English town of Fairfield. 

A purchase of the territory lying north of the sound 
and reaching seven miles along the coast was fairly 
made by Ludlow. Some remaining claim of the 
friendly tribe of natives, who were in no way connect- 
ed with the hostile Pequots, was in 1670 extinguished 
in a bargain made by the town through the agency of 
one of its people, Mr. Jehu Burr. 

The town records, although by no means complete, 
run through many years, during which the civil autho- 
rity controlled ecclesiastical affairs, and all the town 
meetings were held in the house where Divine service 
was performed. From the measures taken at these 
meetings we can form some idea of the difficulties by 
which these early inhabitants were surrounded. They 
offered a bounty of twenty shillings for every wolf 
killed in the town and one shilling for every fox. 
They passed stringent laws to punish vagrancy, they 
voted upon the acceptability of every applicant for 
residence within their precincts. Some they refused 



17 

to receive, some who were already here and guilty of 
misconduct they ordered to depart. The magistrate, 
minister and teacher were compensated for their 
services by the grant or sale of common lands and a 
new distribution of these public lands was made from 
time to time in proportion to the possession already 
obtained and the number of children in the house- 
hold. The calls for untiring diligence were constant 
and pressing. Those long and narrow lots reaching 
back for miles must needs be brouorht under cultivation 
by clearing, stubbing, ditching and fencing before they 
could be used for meadow, pasture or arable land. 
There were roads to lay out, bridges to build, water 
courses to be turned into the mill dam, barns, dwell- 
ings, school houses and churches to be erected and 
much needful furniture to be made. Shingles had to 
be planed and nails wrought by handiwork. All this 
and much more of similar labor called for the exertion 
both of brain and muscle in those primitive days of 
Fairfield's industry and thrift. Nor were the women 
idle. The flocks, largely depended on for family sup- 
plies came under their care. From the clipping of 
the wool to its transfer as a finished garment upon 
the persons of their husbands, their children or them- 
selves, womens' fingers were kept busy, while in the 
washing, carding, spinning, weaving, dyeing, cutting 
and the sewing, dames and damsels of those days be- 
came adepts. The lard and candles, the soap and sul- 
phur matches, the butter, cheese and bread all were 
home made. Have I not said enough to show you that 



both on the farm and within the dwelHng there were 
all the elements needful for self reliance and strength ? 
In the absence of a piano, the music of the loom and 
spinning wheel doubtless lulled many a Fairfield baby 
to sleep. From these beginnings of agriculture and 
in the foundation arts of the mason, carpenter, smith 
and miller, the town made onward progress until it 
became a port of entry for foreign goods, while the 
destruction of no less than forty-eight shops and 
stores in 1779 makes clear the increase of its com- 
merce and manufacturers. 

During all these early years there was peace within 
its borders, only once interrupted by an early speck 
of threatened war. In 1653 our neighbors of the 
Manhadoes were suspected of efforts to incite the 
Indians to massacre the white inhabitants of these 
New England settlements. The authorities of the 
colonies at first appeared to favor the suggestion of 
a war against the Dutch, but soon wisely abandoned 
the project. This change of policy did not suit the 
views of our chief townsman, Mr. Ludlow. He urg- 
ed the people of Fairfield and some dwelling in Stam- 
ford, to prepare for such a war, on their own account, 
and he was made General of a small army organized 
here. The project was brought to naught by colonial 
authority, and on account of this discomfiture Mr. 
Ludlow took his departure from us and made a new 
home in Virofinia. Thus Connecticut and Fairfield 
alike were losers of an honest and capable man, who 
had held high offices and performed much useful 



19 

work. His chief faults appear to have been an impe- 
rious temper and undue confidence in his own opinion. 
His home here cannot be definitely ascertained, but 
is supposed to have been not far from the present 
residence of Mrs. Benson. 

In connection with this mention of a small army, 
home-made as were the most of our productions, I 
will speak of another military spectacle in our town 
that appeared about ninety years later. In 1768, a 
portion of his majesty's 48th Highlanders were quar- 
tered here. The town meeting took pity upon our 
Gaelic guests whose short breeks left their knees un- 
coverd to the biting cold, and with other supplies raised 
by tax, they voted ^23 to furnish wood for the High- 
land troops. 

This passing notice of military topics would not be 
complete unless allusion were made to that institution 
of every Connecticut town the Trayne band with its 
drillings six days every year, begun at eight o'clock 
in the morning, often with the solemnity of prayer. 

Into a minute description of other institutions of 
those early years I cannot enter. 

We learn from the provisions made in town meet- 
ings for the support of the teacher that schools were 
soon established. 

The Prime Ecclesiastical Society was co-existant 
with the town and the only other religious organiza- 
tion near the centre was that of the Church of Ene- 
land, which had its distinct beginning here in 1724. 
In explanation of the statements already made of the 



20 

amount of business carried on, we must remember 
that Fairfield village was the centre of a large and 
growing farming community. A few farms nearly 
connected with it, were all that then existed of 
Mill River, now known as the flourishing borough of 
Southport. As for our enterprising neighbor on the 
Pequonnock, her few scattered houses as yet had given 
no presage of the business capacities latent within 
her, of the vast factories that have since supplied the 
world with their destructive and useful productions, 
nor of the gorgeous spectacles that go forth thence 
to astonish and delight the nations. To show how 
early the fruitfulness of Bridgeport soil was under- 
stood-, I quote from the Fairfield town records of 
May, 7, 1719 the following item : "The town grants 
unto the Rev. Mr. Cooke of Stratford the whole 
right in the herbage of Golden Hill, both meadow 
and upland, which grant to continue during the town's 
pleasure." 

In the grand list of 1775, where one-hundred and 
sixty-nine towns are enumerated, Fairfield stands 
seventh in taxable wealth. Her political and social 
powers were also great. Her representatives carried 
the point in the General court, of having twelve 
jurors instead of six in judicial trials. Mr. Ludlow 
had been the first man to codify the laws of the col- 
ony, and the general intelligence and integrity prevail- 
ing in the town made it a place of attraction to 
virtuous and cultivated people. 

As wealth increased, society became more polished. 



21 



The mild system of New England slavery lightened 
some of the burdens of the household. The children 
of these servants were baptized and religiously educa- 
ted, and among the few who died by the bayonets of 
British soldiers in '79, one was a negro servant. 

I beg to present to you a few names then familiar 
in the households of Fairfield, the greater part of 
which I have found upon the marriage records of 
Rev. Mr. Eliot. 

They are Toney, Tego, Callico, York, Priamus, 
Primus, Titus and Prince, married respectively to 
Dorcas, Sue, Dinah, Kate, Luce Jute, Nance and 
Phillis. In addition to these may be mentioned 
Marrimo, Parrot, Pompy, Sambo, Boston, Lyd, 
Floro, Tama, Dolphin and Dran. 

After these servants of earthly masters I will next 
name the ministers who officiated in the Fairfield 
churches in 1779. The prime ancient society had 
for its pastor Andrew Eliot, son of Andrew Eliot, D. 
D., of Boston, who was invited here from a steward- 
ship at Harvard, Captain Abel having gone on horse- 
back to Boston to convey to him a call. He was 
ordained June 22d, 1774, and after a useful ministry 
of more than thirty-one years, fell asleep among his 
people, September 26th, 1705. 

During the war he was a zealous advocate of In- 
dependence and his account of the scenes of the 7th 
and 8th of July is probably the most graphic narrative 
that has come down to us of the events we commemo- 
rate to-day. Mr. Eliot was a scholar of distinguished 



22 



ability, and under his instruction the late Prof. Benj. 
Silliman was prepared to enter Yale College at a very 
early age. 

The Rev. John Sayre was minister of the Episcopal 
church, having previously served a Parish in Newburg. 
He was a decided loyalist and in the great excitement 
of those times he had been for a season banished 
from his home and parish. But many of the most 
respectable of the towns-people, both within and out- 
side of his church, although they had no sympathy 
with his political opinions, esteeming him as a Godly 
and useful minister, procured his recall. On the 7th 
of July, after the firing had begun and the flames had 
been kindled, Mr. Sayre appeared among the people 
with the British General's address, and by this action 
aroused great indignation against himself. 

He entreated from Gen. Tryon the exemption of 
the town from the flames. Failing in this, he begged 
that a few houses including his own and that of Mr. 
Eliot, might be spared. For these he obtained a 
written protection, but the paper proved useless, and 
both of these ministers were involved with the most 
of their townsmen in the total loss of their property. 
Mr. Sayre, with his wife and eight young children, 
stripped of every earthly possession, excepting the 
clothes they were wearing, found refuge on board the 
British fleet, and after serving a church in Nova Sco- 
tia, he closed his earthly ministry. A similar calam- 
ity of fire was suffered by Rev. Hezekiah Ripley, the 
able and excellent pastor of the Green's Farm's 



23 

church. Dr. Ripley served for a time as chaplain in 
the Continental army, and had a long and honored 
pastorate at Green's Farms. 

The most prominent physician here in those years 
was Dr. Francis Forgue. He had married the charm- 
ing widow of Mr. Dennie, and lived in the home left 
to her by her first husband, near the site of Mrs. John 
Sanford's house. As a county seat, Fairfield offered 
an attractive home for the legal profession. Promi- 
nent among our lawyers, was Judge Jonathan Sturges, 
whose home was near the present junction of the 
Railway and Mill Plain road. He was active in all 
town affairs, and became one of the members of the 
Congress of 1789, the first that greeted Washington 
as president of the United States. Another eminent 
lawyer was Gold Selleck Silliman, whose dwelling yet 
stands on Holland Hill. He is better known to us 
in a military capacity, having served in the battles of 
Long Island, White Plains and Ridgefield. To him had 
been assigned the command of the militia in this county, 
and his skill as a General was so highly appreciated 
that Sir Henry Clinton employed a small company of 
tory soldiers to make him prisoner. They came, eight 
in number, from a whale boat, with which they had 
crossed from Long Island, leaving it in charge of the 
ninth of their band, hid in the sedges of Black Rock. 
Stealthily feeling their way up the steep hill at mid- 
night they forced a passage into the dwelling and 
secured the prize. Gen. Silliman was deacon in the 
old Fairfield church and had in charge the vessels to 



24 

be used on that Sabbath which had already begun at 
the hour of sunset. With great presence of mind, 
he cast one of his wife's garments over these utensils, 
thus screening them from observation, and then, with 
his son William, took his unwilling march to enter 
upon a year's captivity. This was on the first night 
of May, '79, and his enforced absence during the 
coming July, caused the command to be devolved at 
that season upon Col. Samuel Whiting, of Stratford, 
who bravely fulfilled the duties thus imposed. 

With Gen. Silliman's name is associated that of 
Lieut. Col. Abraham Gold, the home of whose ances- 
tors and descendants has belonged to the family more 
than two hundred years. These two had fought in 
the same fields of battle. The latest occasion of their 
warlike companionship was at Ridgefield, in April, 
1777, where Gen. Worster was mortally wounded and 
Col. Gold was slain. His home was where the main 
street turns northward toward Stratfield, Stratford 
and New Haven, a part of the old King's highway 
between New York and Boston, the lower road now 
leading to Bridgeport not having been opened at that 
time. 

In the conflagration of the town, his widow, with 
their chidren, lost their dwelling house which bounded 
the limit of the fire in that direction. 

On the corner below us, now occupied by the 
beautiful lawn on which Mr. Henry Beer's house 
stands, lived Capt. Samuel Smedley. When very 
young he married Esther Rowland, his near neighbor, 



25 

and early in the war, became an officer on the Con- 
necticut armed vessel the Defense, of which he was 
soon promoted to the chief command. Among the 
valuable prizes he took were the Snowswift, the Grog, 
the Anna and the Lydia. In consort with Capt, 
Parker of the Cromwell, another Connecticut ship, 
two armed British vessels were attacked, the Admiral 
Keppel of 1 8 guns and the Cyrus of i6. It was a 
time of partial disablement on the Defense, one of 
Capt. Smedley's officers had died of small pox and 
fifty of the crew having been exposed to the disease, 
had been inocculated. Yet though suffering from 
the fever attending this process, the men did noble 
service. Both the English ships were captured and 
the prizes including their cargoes sold, the one for 
about ^20,000, and the other, to give exact figures, 
for ^22,320 1 8s. and 8d. After the war was closed 
Capt. Smedley received the appointment of Collector 
of this port. 

The Sheriff of the county in those days was Gen. 
Elijah Abel whose house was the second one set o^ 
fire. This he afterward rebuilt and it is occupied by 
Mrs. Benson. Gen. Able was an active man in the 
affairs of the county, the town, the militia and the 
church. 

Mr. Andrew Rowland filled during many years the 
important office of Town Clerk, and his dwelling 
which survived the fire, is now the house of Mr, 
Benjamin Betts. 

In the group of families bearing the familiar name 



26 

of Burr, that of Mr. Thaddeus Burr and Eunice, his 
wife, stands prominent. His dwelHng was on the 
site of the house of Mr. O. W. Jones, and many 
traditions have come down to us of the plenty, 
elegance and hospitality which characterized that 
home. Within it were welcomed friends driven out 
of Boston at the time of its blockade. There, one 
of the most noted beauties of that city, Dorothy, 
daughter of Edmund Quincy, was, on the 28th of 
August, 1779, married to John Hancock, President of 
the Continental Congress. 

Andrew Eliot, who records this marriage, places it 
in its order next to that of Jack, negro servant of 
David Barlow, and Mary, negro servant of Deacon 
Hill. The nuptial tie, like the grip of death, clutches 
mortals of every station. To Mr. Burr's dwelling 
Gen. Tyron had given a protection, but this' did not 
avail to save it and its valuable contents from des- 
truction. 

The affidavit of Mrs. Burr, an intelligent and re- 
fined women, describing the scene of which she was 
a witness, presents a forcible demonstration of the 
wanton outrages committed by the invadors of our 
soil. The same may be said also of the sworn state- 
ments made by others who witnessed similar scenes in 
their own dwellings. Of these I may mention the 
names of Jane and Abigail Bulkley, Mary Beers, 
Isabella Trubee, Ruana Roberson and Ann Nichols, 
all of them wives of Fairfield men. All offered vain 
entreaties to prevetit the destruction of the homes 
over which they were watching. 



27 

In considering the calamity that came upon this 
people, we must not forget that down to the year 
1765, they, with all their New England compatriots 
had been thoroughly loyal to the English Govern- 
ment. 

The news of Clive's wonderful victory at Plassy in 
1757, which laid the foundation of a British 
Empire in India, had been hailed by them with glad 
acclamation. They did not foresee that policy which 
to help the fortunes of the East India company 
would seek to force its stores of tea upon unwilling 
America. 

These colonists also bore much of the burden laid 
upon them in the French and Indian wars, and when 
Quebec was taken and the treaty with France in 1 763 
secured the possession of Canada as British territory, 
our own town, with all others in New England, 
welcomed the splendid results of Chatham's states- 
manship and Wolfe's heroic valor. 

But the stamp act of a two years' later date turn- 
ed back the current of this loyalty. The sanctions 
of constitutional law wrung by our fathers from the 
hands of an unwilling king at Runnymede, and the 
principles that occasioned and sustained the Pilgrim 
exodus were alike arrayed against the new stand 
taken by the British ministry. Throughout our 
whole land the controversy waxed stronger, until ten 
years after its beginning it found vent in the bullets 
of Lexington. 

During these years men were brought face to face 



28 

with the question which each must answer for him- 
self. Fairfield answered it with almost entire unan- 
imity, and in response to those Massachusetts 
muskets of the 19th of April, i 775, fifty of her militia, 
under Capt. David Dimon, were speedily on their 
march toward Boston. 

Connecticut has been fortunate in the choice of her 
governors, and the chief magistrate of our common- 
wealth who is with us to-day belongs to a company 
of noble men, and is, we believe, worthy to be en- 
rolled in such a companionship. We feel all the 
more confident in trusting the administration of 
Governor Andrews because he had Jonathan Trum- 
bull as one of his predecessors. Brother Jonathan, 
Washington's prudent adviser, to whose wisdom and 
patriotism the chief of the nation gave clearest tes- 
timony. Under the counsels of this man, holding 
the highest of^ce in the State, Connecticut, from the 
first, took an active and important part in the conduct 
of the war. Gov. Trumbull, as contrasted with 
Tryon, the Royal Governor of our neighboring 
State of New York, reminds us of objects presented 
by Jotham's ancient allegory. One was a cedar of 
Lebanon, under whose shadow men came for shelter 
and strength ; the other, the bramble, out of whose 
thorny spines shot forth the flames that blasted and 
consumed. 

Some of the sons of Fairfield were early enlisted 
among the Continental troops sent to the defense of 
New York. They shared in the disaster of Long 



29 

Island and White Plains. They had their represen- 
tatives among the captives of the sugar house and 
prison ship. On an exchange of prisoners some re- 
turned suffering from small-pox, that scourge of the 
army, and near the old powder house a commodious 
barn was fitted up as a hospital for them. In our 
town meeting, during the want occasioned by the 
blockade of Boston, an effort to obtain food for the 
suffering people resulted in the despatch of 750 
bushels of grain for their relief. The thankful ac- 
knowledgment of this timely gift may be read upon 
our records, and it is one of the writings of which 
none of our townsmen need to be ashamed. The im- 
portant articles of association passed by Congress, 
October 14th, 1774, met with hearty response among 
us, and a large committee, consisting of some of our 
most prominent citizens, was formed to make the 
pledge effectual. It was designed to free our people 
from dependence upon goods imported from Eng- 
land, to encourage the practice of economy, alike in 
sports, luxuries and mourning apparel, and to frus- 
trate the efforts of any who might seek to weaken 
the patriotic sentiment now rapidly advancing toward 
the final conflict. 

During these years, active measures were taken to 
prevent surprise by sudden incursion upon our coasts. 
Alarm signals were concerted and o-uards stationed 

o o 

at Stratfield, Compo, Frost Point, and McKenzie's 
Point, to keep watch from sunset to sunrise. The 
fort on Grover's Hill was strengthened and supplied 



30 

with I2lb. cannon and ammunition for the use of its 
garrison of 25 men. These were enough to act as 
sentinels throughout during the day. They proved 
afterward, though a Httle decreased in number, vic- 
torious against all the force that could be sent against 
them. 

In May, 1779, an unavailing request was made to 
the Governor and Council for an armed vessel to 
guard our coasts during that approaching summer, 
for even then there were portents of dread events to 
come troubling the minds of our people. The last 
action taken in town meeting, before the house of its 
assembly was consumed, was the adoption of a reso- 
lution designed to arrest the depreciation of paper 
money. 

I have spoken of Gov. Tryon. The story of our 
disasters could not be told without the frequent men- 
tion of his name. Among the distinguished visitors 
whom Fairfield has entertained, this British Gover- 
nor and Major-General stands pre-eminent. So fas- 
cinated were our people with him during his brief 
stay of less than thirty hours, that twelve days after 
his departure a committee was appointed in town 
meeting to raise a sum of money to be offered as a 
reward to any person who should " captivate " and 
take him. 

Sir Wm. Tryon, Bart., makes his earliest appear- 
ance in American History as Governor of the 
Province of North Carolina. Assuming a vice royal 
state, he built a palace in Newbern, and to sup- 



31 

port the expenses attending his dignity oppressed 
the people with heavy taxation. An insurrection 
was caused by his petty tyrany, which he suppressed 
with the bullets of his gruards. 

On the 8th of July, 1771, he was transferred to 
New York, and appointed to the same station in 
that province, having his residence in its chief city. 
Surrounded there by active and intelligent loyalists 
he yielded credence to their expressed statements 
that throuo-h the weakness of resources and the 
jealousies and corruption too manifest among them- 
selves, the American people who had engaged in 
the conflict must ultimately yield to the greater 
power of the mother country. Tryon had much 
vanity in his character ; this he had shown in New- 
bern, this also appears in his ordering a new county 
to be made from Albany, to which his name was 
attached, now substituted by that of Montgomery. 
He had the disposition to be active in the contest 
that when the rebellion had been crushed, King 
George might be constrained to give to him a 
better title than that of Baronet. Yet, although 
he had physical courage, it is unfortunate for his 
reputation that he never availed himself of his 
high standing in the British army to encounter an 
organized force in the open field. 

He tried the art of rhetoric, addressing letters 
to Gov. Trumbull, Gen. Parsons, and others, in 
which he sought to convince them of the hope- 
lessness of their cause. A specimen of his power 



32 

in this direction is before us in the famous address 
issued to the people of Connecticut and widely 
scattered at New Haven and Fairfield. This told 
them that their towns, their property and them- 
selves were within the grasp of a power whose 
forbearance they had ungenerously construed into 
fear, and urged them to humble themselves because 
of their delusion and conscious guilt. 

Tryon's pen in all these efforts proved powerless. 

Another course he pursued was one of treachery. 
He corrupted some near the person of Washington 
in expectation that the American General might be 
made his prisoner, but in this he was foiled. 

He made similar efforts to secure the capture of 
Putnam, but his secret agent was discovered and 
taken. When Tryon sent a threatening message 
demanding his release, the reply came back from 
Peekskill in this curt and comprehensive note : 

To Gov. Tryon, Sir : Nathan Palmer a lieutenant 

in your service was taken in my camp as a spy ; 

he was tried as a spy ; he was condemned as a spy ; 

and you may rest assured. Sir, he shall be hanged 

as a spy. 

I have the honor to be &c., 

Israel Putnam. 
P. S. — Afternoon : He is hanged. 

Gen. Tryon's warlike achievements were each con- 
nected with the people of Fairfield County. The 



first was in the spring of '']'], when he landed at 
Compo with two thousand troops and burned a por- 
tion of Danbury — with this the battle of Ridgefield 
was closely associated. Gen, Silliman and the Fair- 
field militia and artillery then first encountered the 
man who was two years later to set their town on fire. 

The second of these expeditions was made by land, 
in February, 1779, and is connected with the story of 
Putnam's famous leap at Horse Neck Hill The 
third, and most interesting to us, was the descent 
upon this portion of the coast occupying about ten 
days in July, 1779. 

We may properly pause here and inquire what 
were the motives that led to this predatory warfare. 
Gen. Tryon held no special grudge against these 
three towns. He was not like John Butler, who 
cherished intense hatred toward the Connecticut 
colony of Wyoming, and whose people, with the aid 
of his savage allies, he massacred in cold blood. 
He had no such occasion of offence as later in the 
war brought Benedict Arnold to wreak vengeance 
on his native town of Norwich. 

Tryon acted under instructions from the English 
ministry and from Sir Henry Clinton, the comman- 
der-in-chief of all the British forces in America. 
The former were incensed at the recent alliance 
formed between France and America. To them it 
appeared like the mortgaging of English property to 
England's ancient foe, and whatever could be done 
to damage that property was in accord with justice 



34 

and propriety. The success of American privateers 
had also been a source of great annoyance, and 
the depredations on peaceful towns might, it was 
thought, discourage such undertakings. 

Gen. Clinton favored the expedition for military 
reasons. With the exception of an army at New- 
port and a small post on the Penobscot, New Eng- 
land at this time was free from British troops. The 
active measures of the war had been transferred to 
the south, but Clinton held a large and well organ- 
ized army at or near New York. Meanwhile, the 
American General was guarding the passage of the 
Hudson, with his headquarters at New Windsor, and 
his troops stationed among the highlands. To draw 
Washington from this secure position, and to force 
him to a battle on the open field, with all the advan- 
tage of numbers and discipline on the British side, 
was the purpose and wish of Clinton. Many at the 
time blamed the American commander-in-chief be- 
cause he did not march to the succor of distressed 
Connecticut, but time, and the events of history have 
vindicated both his judgment and humanity in the 
course he pursued. 

The ends aimed at by the British ministry and 
military commander were not realized, and this sack 
of the dwellings of inoffensive people added neither 
credit nor strength to the British cause. Sir Henry 
Clinton recalled the fleet without allowing the intend- 
ed descent upon New London which was to follow 
the burning of Norwalk. It may be his acute mind 



35 

perceived a mistake had been made. Sympathy was 
aroused even among some who were enemies, and the 
patriotic spirit of our own people was more than ever 
intensified. Dr. FrankHn, in a letter, quotes Paul 
Jones, the valiant privateer, as saying that the burn- 
ing of Fairfield and other towns had demolished all 
his moderation. 

As we endeavor to picture the appearance of our 
own town when this descent was made, we must not 
think of it as an old and dilapidated settlement. 
Although well nigh a hundred and forty years had 
passed since the colonists laid their first foundations, 
scarcely a vestige of their earliest buildings remxained. 
They had given place to larger and better structures. 
The Prime Ancient Society still retaining their original 
site, had erected upon it in 1747 their third house of 
worship. Its dimensions were 60 by 44 feet, and its 
steeple was 120 feet high. 

The Episcopal church, which, in 1 738, took the 
place of the first building on Mill Plain, stood on 
Main street, facing the street that leads to our pres- 
ent post-office, on what is now Mr. Henry Rowland's 
place ; it was also a commodious building with a 
steeple 100 feet in height. The court-house on this 
central green had only recently been erected in place 
of one standing before where Mr. Hobart's store now 
stands. A noted thief named Fraser, confined in the 
jail then connected with it, had set that building on 
fire on the 4th of April, 1768. Hence had come the 
rebuilding, and the erection of a separate prison which 



36 

was located where St. Paul's church now stands. All 
these comparatively recent structures were consumed^ 
together with Penfield's Sun Tavern which also faced 
the green. The public and private buildings were 
creditable to the taste and prosperity of the people. 

The village was surrounded with meadows, whose 
stores of hay had recently been gathered into barns, 
and the wheat harvest, which promised great abund- 
ance, had just begun. 

On Saturday evening, the 3d day of July, the Bri- 
tish fleet weighed anchor off the port of Whitestone, 
eleven miles east of New York. During the spring, 
it had made a destructive raid upon Virginia, and re- 
turned in time to aid General Clinton in his success- 
ful assault upon Verplanck's and Stony Point on the 
first of June. 

The New York Sons of Liberty had been informed 
of preparations for a fresh departure, and sent cour- 
iers to New London to warn that city of the coming 
invader. 

Sunday, the fourth of July, was a warm, calm day. 
Our people were in their churches, and the vessels 
could scarcely have appeared in view before the night 
came on. The light breeze had no power to move 
them swiftly on their course. There were two large 
men-of-war, the Camilla and 'Scorpion, and forty- 
eight row galleys, tenders and transports. Sir 
George Collier commanded the fleet and General 
Tryon the land forces, about twenty-six hundred in 
number. Brigadier-General Garth had special charge 



2>1 

of the Hessian regiments, the Landgraves and 
Yaeo-ers. The Enorlish forces consisted of two- 
bodies of Fusileers, the Guards, the Fifty-fourth 
regiment of foot and the King's American regiment, 
refugees enHsted in the British army. Early on Mon- 
day morning, the squadron came to anchor near New 
Haven, where on that day and Tuesday the troops 
pursued their desolating work. On the evening of 
Tuesday the fleet left New Haven, and during that 
night was moving toward Fairfield. About four 
o'clock of Wednesday a gun from the fort on Gro- 
ver's Hill announced its approach, but it seemed to 
be passing by, and about seven o'clock the people 
who were anxiously watching it were rejoiced to see 
that it was steering westward, proceeding, as they 
thought, to New York. Soon after a very thick fog 
came on, during which the vessels were obscured 
from view, but when this dispersed, between 9 and 
10 o'clock it was seen with consternation that the 
whole fleet was under our western shore, where they 
came to anchor at the Pines, which have since dis- 
appeared, a little to the east of McKenzies Point. 
From Gen. Tryon's report, it appears that he with 
the main portion of the troops landed there, and 
that the Hessians, under Gen. Garth, made their dis- 
embarkation at the water front of Sasco Hill, over 
which they marched to take possession of the 
western section of the town. 

Tryon, with the troops immediately under his 
command, marched along the beach and turned up 



38 

the Beach Lane, somewhat galled by the guns of 
Grover's Hill. They pursued their way to this point 
where we are now assembled, and where, on the site 
of our Town Hall, the Court House was then stand- 
ing. 

The British General was guided by George Hoyt, 
who was brother-in-lav/ of Mr. Benjamin Bulkley. 

His house, since demolished, stood on the ground 
where Mr. John Glover has his home, and Gen 
Tryon made his headquarters while here. With 
this, the dwellings of Capt. Maltbie, Justin Hobart, 
and Nathan and Peter Bulkley, were saved from the 
fire. These are now in the possession of Edmund 
Hobart, Miss Hannah Hobart, and the Denison 
estate. 

The line of the conflagration extended from Mrs. 
Gould's house to Mill River, in the vicinity of Per- 
ry's Mill, including both the streets and their imme- 
diate neighborhood, and extended westward through 
the lower road at Green's Farms. 

To silence the guns at the fort where Lieut. Isaac 
Jarvis had a garrison of twenty-three men, a galley 
had been dispatched, but although there was constant 
firing throughout the night of Wednesday, and 
several detachments of troops tried to take the fort 
by assault, it was gallantly defended and held out to 
the end. 

As the troops marched up toward the centre of 
the town, young Sam. Rowland, then ten years of 
age, saw them from the steeple at the Episcopal 



39 

church, but he was soon sent home from his dan- 
gerous position, and his grand -children to-day re- 
peat the story they heard in their childhood from his 
lips. Mrs. Gen. Silliman from the home of her tem- 
porary widowhood on Holland Hill, heard the first 
guns of the conflict and set out for a safe asylum 
in Trumbull, where a few weeks later her second son, 
the distinguished Yale Professor was born. 

Before the landing was effected, Mrs. Esther Jen- 
nings, the young w^ife of Peter Burr, went early to 
the pasture fields near McKenzie's Point and drove 
the cattle there feeding to a safe refuge on Green- 
field Hill. Thither and to Fairfield Woods many of 
the little children with much furniture were removed 
in carts and chaises, while some of the wornen re- 
mained to guard the dwellings. The company who 
had charge of a field piece, wheeled it to a good po- 
sition on Burr's highway. The men in the village 
and farm-houses grasped their muskets and ammuni- 
tion, and rallied under command of Col. Whiting at 
the rendevous on Round Hill. 

Tryon's march to the green was the signal of their 
resistance, and a small company under Capt. Thomas 
Nash, made a brilliant attack upon the English 
troops, firing from behind the fences, and killing a 
few who were laid in shallow graves by their com- 
rades on the meeting-house grounds. These after- 
wards were removed to permanent rest in our ancient 
cemetery. 

About this time it would appear that the first 



40 

house was fired, the one belonging to Isaac Jennings 
on whose site Mrs. Esther Huntington now lives. 
Then came the flag from Gen. Tryon and the read- 
ing of that address of which I have spoken. Col. 
Whiting sent back this spirited reply ; 

" Connecticut having nobly dared to take up arms 
against the cruel despotism of Britain, and as the 
flames have now preceded the answer to your flag, 
they will persist to oppose to the utmost that power 
exerted against injured innocence." 

In resistance of an organized army who held pos- 
session of the town it was impossible for the militia 
to concentrate an effectual force. The night was 
coming on — that Wednesday night of the 7th, which 
witnessed scenes of debauchery and cruelty such as 
Fairfield has never known at any other period of 
her history. The Hessian general held the Western 
portion of the town, and his regiment of Yaegers 
are described as skulking and yelling like the wild 
savages of the forest. The detachments broke up 
into small squads and some of the governor's guards 
engaged in a dance in the Sun Tavern on the green. 
Most of the soldiers were passing in little companies 
from house to house, pillaging and wasting provis- 
ions, breaking up glass, earthenware and furniture, 
stealing the watches, jewelry and shoe-buckles from 
the persons of women, taking from them even their 
aprons and handkerchiefs, and with oaths and ri- 
baldry, grossly insulting them. Many soldiers were 
drunk with liquor or strong cider they had stolen. 



41 

Tryon reports that they lay on their arms during the 
night, and Dr. Dwight, who was not an eye-witness 
to those scenes, describes in eloquent language a ter- 
rific thunder-storm. Enough it is for us to hear the 
guns thundering through all its dark hours in the de- 
fense and attack of the little fort, and to see one 
after another of the pillaged houses fall before the 
flames which the British general's troops had kindled. 
The burning cinders that fell that night, wet with the 
tears of women then made homeless, must ever in 
the record of history blacken Tryon's name. 

The militia did all they were able to accomplish, 
keeping up a running fire, and more were on their 
way to join them. So the signal of retreat was 
sounded early on Thursday, and in the course of 
that morning of the 8th of July, the squadron was 
off for Huntington, only to cross the Sound again, 
and on the subsequent Sunday repeat their terrible 
work at Norwalk. It was on the morning of the 
8th that the remaining private edifices and all the 
public buildings were consumed. More destruction 
would doubtless have been effected but for the 
wholesome fear of the ambush of the watchful militia. 

The enemy dreaded the stone walls, fences and 
shrubbery. On this account the old mill of Peter 
Perry, which had ground the corn of the people for 
a hundred years, was still left to do its work. 
Through the exertions of the women Vv^ho kept watch 
some fires that had been kindled were put out. This 
was done four times by Mrs. Lucretia Redfield dur- 



42 

ing that Wednesday night, and the house she then 
saved stands to-day a pleasant abode occupied by 
some of the same name. The Nichols family, al- 
ways proverbial for notable housewifery, employed 
large hanks of yarn then soaking in preparation for 
the dye and with it extinguished the flames that had 
begun to consume their home. 

There were burned a court house and jail, three 
churches, two school houses, ninety-seven dwellings, 
sixty-seven barns, forty-eight stores and shops, in all 
two hundred and eighteen buildings. The gathered 
labors of the field, the books, papers, pictures, the 
well-preserved products of the spinning wheel and 
needle, the precious heirlooms, tokens of love and 
memorials of friendship, how were these brought 
into destruction as in a moment ! 

The sparks, cinders and half burned feathers 
floating in the summer air — what sickness must they 
have brought to many hearts ! 

Some things had been removed to safe places be- 
yond the reach of the fire. Isaac Burr, the jeweler, 
hid the watches left for repair at his shop within the 
stone fissures of his well and placed his Bible and 
some of his own precious goods with them. 

Prudent Phillis, servant of Judge Sturges, took the 
wet linen from the wash tub and hid it among the 
currant bushes. Pewter dishes, kept bright by con- 
stant scouring, were thrown into the bottom of wells, 
to be recovered when the danger was past. One 
looking glass is still as reflecting as ever. It was 



43 

hidden In an uncradled rye field, and when, a few 
days later a black man cut the swath that revealed it 
standing there upright, he saw his own figure in the 
sunshine, and mistaking it for Satan, whom he feared, 
he threw down his sickle in terror and ran away. 

The sadness had by that time been mollified, the 
people had begun again to provide means for living. 
They made new homes, some in warehouses or out- 
buildings that had been spared, some rearing them 
again upon the old foundations. The large grant of 
State lands (on this account called the burnt lands), 
in Ohio, tempted a few to find new homes in the 
West. Some of our own people thus changed their 
place of residence, and their descendants are there 
abiding to this day, adorning their ancestral teach- 
ings by lives of honor and usefulness; and of the stock 
transplanted in this manner from our neighboring 
town of Norwalk, sprung the two brothers Sherman, 
one presiding to-day over our nation's treasury, and 
the other commanding its army. 

The life of Fairfield was not extinguished in its 
burning, nor did the energy of the town expire. Its 
source of strength was too deep to be reached by 
the kindled brands, too high to be fatally affected by 
the ascending flames. The town rose from its ashes, 
and has had an honorable history down to the present 
day. From the fire that consumed Mr. Eliot's 
dwelling one book was rescued, the Church record, 
running back to 1694. In his clear handwriting, he 
inscribed within it a brief account of the events 



44 

which, after the lapse of a century, we now recall. 
As in concluding this address I repeat his words, 
they may convey to us the spirit of submission unto 
God and trust in Him which strengthened this peo- 
ple to pass through the furnace of calamity. In 
subsequent times of prosperity and safety, these sen- 
timents have not been wholly lost. May they always 
prevail, and may the intelligence, soberness and in- 
dustry of our people render them fit dwellers in 
those pleasant places chosen more than two hundred 
and forty years ago by the founders of our beautiful 
town. By maintaining these principles in peace and 
purity, and through a wise and constant exercise of 
that public spirit which characterized our fathers, we 
will show how greatly we prize this rich inheritance, 
made more precious by the refining fire. 

Copy of historical note of Rev. Andrew Eliot, 
V.D.M. : 

—1779.— 

July 7th. — A part of the British army, consisting 
of Britons, Germans, and American refugees, under 
the command of Major-General Tryon, and Briga- 
dier-General Garth, landed in this town from a fleet 
commanded by Sir George Collier. 

In the evening and night of the same day, a great 
part of the buildings in the town plot were consumed 
by said troops. 



45 

July 8th. — In the morning, the meeting-house, to- 
gether with the Church of England building, the 
court house, prison, and almost all the principal 
buildings in the society, were laid in ashes. 

Our holy and our beautiful house, where our 
fathers praised Thee, is burnt up with fire, and all 
our pleasant things are laid waste. 

The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. 

Blessed be the name of the Lord. 

All things work together for good to them that 
love God, to them who are the called according to 
His purpose. 

Alleluia ! 

The Lord, God, Omnipotent, reigneth. Amen. 



UNQUOWA. 



^'Farewell to the Old !" was the mariner's song 

As he gave his adventurous sail to the breeze ; 
" Behind lies the bondage of falsehood and wrong, 

Before floats the vision that beckons and frees. 
Are there tears for the old ? they are profitless tears, 

It hath shown neither pity nor care for to-day ; 
Lay the corpse, dumb and cold, in the grave of the years, 

Mutter "ashes to ashes," then up and away ! 
All hail to the New ! to the land of our quest, 

Though its welcome be bleak and its hillsides be bare, 
'Tis the home of the true, the broad realm of the West, 
Humanity's promise and future are there." 

'Twas the watchword that lured them, faint echoed from far 

And they bowed to its spell of resistless command, 
" Unqiwwa ! Go further ! your beckoning star 

At last o'er the cradle of freedom shall stand. 
Press onward, fresh conquests and glories to find. 

New homes and long vistas are opening to view, 
Fairer fields are before you than aught left behind, 

"Behold ! " said the voice, " I make all things anew." 

With hearts that were tender and brows that were stern 

Our sires to the edge of the wilderness came, 
And read, as discouragement whispered " Return !" 

" U^iqiwwa r writ over in letters of flame. 
They followed to where 'twixt the hills and the sea 

These plains in their vesture of emerald lie ; 
'■'■ No further r' they cried, ''this our haven shall be, 

No lovelier field is o'erarched by the sky." 
Note. — Unqnowa is the Indian name of Fairfield, meaning "go further. 



48 

Yet but for a moment, — the wave of unrest 

With scarce a surcease rolled impatient along, 
And still as it swept from the east to the west, 

" Go further ! " the endless refrain to its song. 
" Out-do all the deeds by humanity done, 

Confound the old world with dismay and surprise 
As it witnesses something new under the sun, 

New morals, discoveries, isms and — lies. 
Where others have climbed write your name above theirs, 

Crowd all sail to the breeze, though for ballast you lack,. 
The favors of Fortune he merits who dares, 

And the motto of progress is " Never look back !" 

Some good he has wrought, to no region confined, 

Freedom's heir, of a century, here in the west, 
Some blessing has brought to himself and mankind. 

Some glories achieved, be it freely confessed. 
Some wisdom moreover, has won, dearly earned ' 

At the price of disaster and costly delays, 
And this not the least from experience learned, 

True progress is Janus-faced, looking fwo ways. 
One front shining fair with the beauty of youth, 

Peering forward to pierce through futurity's vail, 
Decks the day-dreams of Hope with the mantle of Truth 

And listens entranced to the flatterer's tale ; 
The other looks backward with calm level gaze, 

Adown the long track by the centuries trod. 
Traces out the great plan mid the devious maze. 

And hears through the ages the voices of God. 

Strange tissue of gold and of sable we weave 

As we rest 'neath the broad leafy spaces to-day ! 

Old legends with tales of the hour interleave 
And dreaui a long century quickly away. 



49 

Is it well from the glare of the noontide to turn 

And awhile in some black, frowning shadow to dwells 
The lesson sublime of endurance to learn, 

The cost of our heritage, — say, is it well ? 
If patience no less than achievement is grand, 

If the soil bearing heroes is watered by tears. 
Time itself but a speck by eternity spanned, 

Is not this a proud day in the cycle of years? 

What wait ye, dear friends, as in silence ye sit 

With the light and the shade interwoven around, 
O'er your vision what phantoms of memory flit. 

What voice from the fire, speaks of blood-hallowed ground ? 
There's a guest whom ye see not, among you to-day, 

His hand is in yours as he stands at your door, 
With the dead generations he wandered away, 

And now he returns to your hearth-stones once more. 
For him ye have gathered with welcome and cheer. 

For him thus your bountiful table have spread, 
His soul-stirring words ye are waiting to hear, 

To-day ye converse and commune with the dead. 
With the dead ! nay, the living, they walk here again 

As they wandered of yore through the ghost-haunted 
streets, 
Awakened the dust which in slumber had lain. 

Sire to son still the sorrowful story repeats. 
Men may die to the thought of their kindred and age, 

Their names be forgot by their wonted abode, 
But they who the fight for humanity wage 

Ever live to a generous fame and to God. 

For him ye are waiting, the soul of the past. 

The spirit who dwelt in the woods and the waves. 

Gently sighed in the breeze, wildly sobbed in the blast, 
And knelt by our forefathers' cradles and graves ; 



50 

Who led them to where in his desperate flight 

A merciless foe in the swamp stood at bay, 
Nerved their hearts for the onset, their arms for the fight, 

And swept the last hope of the Pequod away. 
Who first on that day to their wondering eyes 

This glorious vision of beauty revealed, 
Where the plain and the sea meet and blend with the skies, 

And our sires hailed in rapture their new-found Fairfield. 

Theirs the spirit that tyranny fearlessly braves. 

In the might of Omnipotence battles with wrong, 
Spurns the peace that is won by the trappings of slaves, 

By disaster grows great, and by suffering, strong. 
That spirit they drank in the breath of the bay 

As with fragrance and healing it passed on the breeze, 
Its coolness they caught from the dash of the spray, 

Its statue erect from the hills and the trees ; 
Its rhythmical tones in the wavelets they heard • 

That crept up enamored to fondle the shore, 
With its dauntless defiance their spirits were stirred, 

In the growl of the surf and the breakers' dull roar. 

That dim Presence is here ; Time returns on its track. 

Our hearts feel the spell of a mystical power, 
On the dial of years the grim shadow, turned back, 

Points again to the pitiful day and the hour ; 
Day whose cloud-curtained mom broke with ominous light 

As the sun faintly streamed through the fog-laden air, 
When the pillar of name lit the blackness of night, 

And the dawning of doubt brought the eve of despair 

On the errand of demons with torch and with brand, 

Do ye spread your white wing*. ye birds of the sea ? 

Pair as angels of light in the ofiing ye stand. 

Speed away with the breezes that blow for the free ! 



51 

Thsj liaTe passed ! idd from sigtt "by the trend of the shore, — 

Breathe a sigh of relief, lips with fear that -vrere dumb; 
Lift the Toice of thanksgiTing, the peril is o 'er ! — 

Hush ! a soTind in the distance ! 'tis the "beat of the drum ! 
Taint and fitful, then londex it falls on the ear. 

To the hiUs ! fox your liTes. if yonr liTes ye would save ! 
The fiend of destrnction and carnage is near, 

Of a pitiless foe Tsiniy mercy ye crave. 
Tjeai^ your hearth-stones and roofs to the conqueror's ire, 

The sacrifice yield to fair Freedom 's demand. 
Tc-day ye pass through the baptism of fire 

And leave to your children a heritage grand- . 

Up ihe lane from the beach comes the irampling of feet, 

ITith the ratiie of drum.s and with bayonets' sheen, 
2.ed-caaxed marauders are thronging the street 

And crowding, with insolent menace, the green. 
" Halt I" the order is heard and the uproar is still ; 

'■ Break your xanks .'" then in groups the im^ders disperse 
Of lust and of plunder to gather their fill, 

Wiile the heavens grow black with a low-muttered curse. 

X)raw the curtain of night, thou kind angel of doom 

O'er the deeds that men dare but that lips may not tell, 
Yet with flashes of light half disclose through the gloom 

To the awe-stricken gazer, the image of keH. 
The flames streaming wildly fromi roof and from spire, 

The cinders whirled upward, the storm-spirit's -w'ail, 
The jubilant dance of the demou of fire 

Mid the thunder's long roll and the roar of the gale. 

Tet not unresisting the patriots fly, — 

Ere the foe's haught}- challenge submission to 3deld, 
±rom the fort on the hill comes an iron reply, 



52 

And the shot of the skirmisher rattles afield. 
Pursuer uplifting the murderous hand 

Follows close on the fugitive's hurried retreat, 
Then his riderless steed at the captor's command 

Comes to halt, as the trooper falls dead at his feet. 
They are scores against thousands, — the contest is vain, 

Yet hereafter the visitor, gazing around. 
Shall say, '' On this sod ran the blood of the slain, 

Here the battle of freedom with triumph was crowned."' 

The black deed is done ; view your work with delight, 

Who have written in ashes your passport to fame, 
In the red, lurid glare of that horrible night 

Emblazoning Tryon's illustrious name. 
These desolate homes, these dull embers that lie 

Where the temples of God once were fair to the sight. 
Like the blood of the martyr for justice shall cry, 

And the Power ye have slighted shall hear and requite^ 

But lo ! the dark vision dissolves from the view ! 

The current of years rolling swiftly away 
In the room of the old brings the beautiful new 

That greets us with smiling contentment to-day. 
A benison thine, hallowed shrine of the past. 

On the cloud of thy morn rest the rainbow of peace ! 
To far generations thy memories last, 

And age bring of honors an endless increase. 
Gaze not on the present with idle content. 

Thine the watchword of Progress, '^ Go further ! soar 
higher !" 
Dwell not in the pride of a noble descent, 

True nobleness blazons its legend, '' Aspire !" 

Old mansions that stand as ye stood in that day 

When scathless ye passed through the midst of the flame. 



This hour ye hold court in your stately array 

While we wreathe your gray fronts with the laurel of 
fame. 

E-Uthless hand of the spoiler preserve their renown, 
From restless improvement these monuments spare, 

Let them pass the old tales to posterity down 
And Time make the trust his perpetual care. 

Sacred dust of our forefathers, slumber in peace ! 

Your graves be the shrine to which patriots wend 
And swear tireless vigilance never to cease 

Till freedom's long struggle with tyranny end. 
The triumph they won be it ours to maintain, 

Lest from dreams of security mockingly torn, 
The captive, too late, strive to rend off his chain. 

The giant awake, of his manliness shorn. 

The old feud is ended ! embracing once more. 

The sons of one mother, in amity true, 
"With a cable of steel binding shore unto shore. 

Hail as one, and forever, Old England and New ! 
Run up the twin flags with the cross and the stars, 

One in race, one in speech, one in faith, one in heart, 
"Wed the crimson and azure, the stripes and the bars, 

Whom God hath thus joined let not man rend apart. 
In glorious rivalry lead the oppressed. 

Flags of union and liberty proudly unfurled, 
Together float on o'er the East and the West 

And march with the drum-beat that circles the world ! 



II— NOON— Intermission. 



At the close of the morning proceedings, the 
President announced that luncheon had been pro- 
vided for the guests, and it was probable that 
although the people were so many, all would find 
themselves provided for. The intention had been 
to have all the tables set in the grove in rear of 
the Congregationalist Church, but the rain had led 
the Committee to begin the task of removing them 
under cover, a task in which they had only in part suc- 
ceeded. Accordingly the Governor, the Officers, the 
Clergy, the Press, the Mayor and Common Council 
of Bridgeport, were asked to go to the upper hall of 
the Town House ; other invited guests would find 
accommodation in the lower hall ; mothers with 
children would be welcome by Miss Hobart in her 
old historical mansion, and ample room would be 
found for all beside in the fine grove behind the 
church, where the whole company were to have 
been entertained. 

The arrangements were carried out successfully. 
The Governor was introduced by Dr. Osgood to 
the ladies in charge of the tables at the Town 
House. Rev. Edward H. Wells said grace, and 
the scene was as pleasing to the eyes as whole- 
some to the inner man. 



56 



III-AFTERNOON, 



ADDRESS BY DR. SAMUEL OSGOOD, 
PRESIDENT OF THE DAY. 



THE TOWN— ITS SCENERY— ITS HISTORY AND HOPES. 



Fellow-citizens, Nughbors and Friends: 

The exercises of this morning have set before you 
the grave historical and hterary aspects of this day, 
and it is not for me to dispute with your orator and 
poet the honors which they have so well won and 
now so modestly wear. This is a social meeting, 
and we come together now to talk over in a sympa- 
thetic way the topics of this place and this day. It 
is delightful to be assured that we are all as one here 
now — all Americans, with one heart for the nation 
and the flag, and ready to welcome all of our coun- 
trymen to our hospitality, and to wish all men God 
speed in their striving for justice, liberty and human- 
ity. 

Let us begin at the" beginning and allow the fair 
face of this charming old town, so old, yet ever young 
and lovely, to win us all to itself and to each other. 
There is no influence that does away differences and 



57 

assimilates various minds and tempers more than 
beauty. We dispute about truth, but we feel the 
charm of beauty and here this speaks to us in a 
master-piece of God's own handiwork as it spoke 
to our fathers who came here a quarter of a thousand 
years ago. Look for yourselves and the look will 
move you all with love and gratitude. Around us 
see this pleasant plain with its fair and thrifty homes, 
its bright gardens and broad meadows, its refreshing 
groves and its soaring spires. In front there is the 
great Sound with the variety and flow of a river and 
the stately majesty of the sea, bearing sprightly boats 
and stout vessels upon its bosom, sweeping afar to 
Long Island, itself a little empire, and swelling here 
towards us against our lovely crescent shore as full 
of attraction as of health, and at the ends of the 
crescent beach beyond goodly hills, filling welcome 
harbors. with its tide. Turn from all this rich land- 
scape and the back ground is no less pleasing and 
remarkably suited to the foreground. There are no 
grand mountains, but sightly hills, rising in memora- 
ble gradations, invite the eye and the footsteps, and 
offer from their various points of view as delightful 
prospects as those that have made the name and the 
fortune of many of the famous places on earth. This 
is our town, our Fairfield, and as we look, we feel 
one pulse beating along the two and a half centuries, 
and unitine us with the stout men and devoted women 
w^ho first called this land by its present name, and 
declared it fair to all time as we do now. 



58 

May we not call this a bridal day for our lovely 
village, not a first wedding, nor a silver, nor a golden, 
nor a diamond wedding. What shall we call it, this 
commemoration, not after twenty-five, or fifty, or 
seventy-five years ; but after a hundred years ? Why 
not call it the celestial wedding, now that this town 
renewed in beauty and with forgiveness of her ene- 
mies, stands forth again in her family and asks heav- 
en's blessing. A hundred years ago she was wedded 
to Freedom in sorrow and tears with a veil of dark- 
ness. These clouds in the morning seemed to put 
that veil again upon her brow, but here the darkness 
is vanishing under the touch of God's own sunshine. 
See her face now in the full light of day, never fairer 
than now. This is the celestial wedding of the dear 
old town. 

Turn now from the face of nature to the field 
of history, and there, too, there is much to command 
our respect, and to win our sympathy. This town 
has been memorable for its learned and patriotic 
men from the beginning, and we may judge well of 
what the people at large were from the character 
of the persons whom they produced or sought out 
and honored. Bancroft speaks of Fairfield when 
it was burned, as a model New England village, and 
certainly before and since that time her citizens 
have made their mark, not only upon this neigh- 
borhood, but upon the country and the world. It 
is worth remembering that five scholars who have 
been connected with Fairfield parishes have been 



59 

called to be presidents of distinguished American 
colleges, and others have been appointed to im- 
portant professorships, where they have won high 
honors and done good and even great work. We 
have had our share of soldiers, statesmen and jurists, 
and in the late war for the nation, our people 
have proved their patriotism by sending their pro- 
portion of money and men to stand by the flag 
against its assailants. We have had merchants, too, 
who have done us honor, by making wealth the 
means of beneficence instead of the measure of 
pride, and who have raised at Yale, Princeton and 
New York institutions of learning, taste, piety and 
charity that not only bless those communities, but 
consecrate the soil, home and blood that bore them. 
Good teachers we have had who have won worthy 
scholars to their instruction, and here and elsewhere 
given good proof that the schoolmaster is still abroad. 
Honor to those of them who filially remember this 
mother town, and whose faces and good works we 
see to day. The churches have not been backward 
in their work, and here to-day the pastor of the Prime 
Ancient Parish unites with the Rector of St. Paul's 
Church, in presence of brethren of various Christian 
names, and on this occasion repeats the old benedic- 
tion, " Grace be to all of them who love the Lord 
Jesus Christ in sincerity." 

So history answers with her voice to the face of na- 
ture, and both call us together in common fellowship 
to-day. What more shall I say, or is this enough with- 



6o 

out touching upon the painful associations of this com- 
memoration ? No ! Let us speak out and have the 
whole heart of the time with us, not doubting that 
in this as in all other historical events, the shading is 
needed to bring out the light, and we must bear the 
cross, if we would wear the crown. Beauty is said to 
be a fatal gift, and however this may be as a general 
truth, it is quite sure that this fair town has had its 
share in the interpretation. The loveliness of this 
place had probably something to do with attracting 
its destroyers. Like old Jerusalem this sweet little 
Zion was assailed and destroyed, and in all the bright- 
ness of her restored beauty we see the traces of that 
sadness, and a certain pathos shades the bloom of 
her cheek and moistens the light of her eyes. We 
may as well own it, that a certain disappointment has 
gone with this town. Since that act, not of war, but 
of barbarism, that destroyed the houses and stores 
and churches of this unarmed place, the best hopes 
of its prosperity have never been fulfilled. It was 
once as thrifty and ambitious as New Haven, and as 
likely from its wealth and culture and situation to be 
a great university town, but New Haven carried the 
day, and our chief marshal and his associates prove 
their mind and their muscle there under the elms of 
College Green instead of finding academic halls here 
under the brow of Greenfield hill. It is hard to be- 
lieve it, but it is true that the men of Fairfield, under 
stout Roger Ludlow, thought of punishing the Dutch 
settlement of New. Amsterdam, and rated Fairfield 



6i 

as the equal of the future New York in prosperity. 
, But New York has beat us, and here to-day her news- 
paper press may be learning for the first time what 
great expectations were once cherished in this quiet 
place. We must confess it. We have been cut out 
by neighbors far and near Bridgeport was the last 
to get the better of us, and after taking our fine 
harbor of Black Rock she is waiting for our timid 
people to ask her to take all the rest of the town 
under her wing, and perhaps has sent her police to- 
day to spy out the riches of our domain. 

Yes, we have been disappointed, but we are not cast 
down nor in despair. Our town probably never felt 
her dignity more than to-day; never was so happy in her 
people and her guests. Never has the scenery looked 
fairer than now, and we mean to add careful science 
to choice tastes in bringing health with beauty to 
crown our prosperous hours. The marshes shall be 
drained, all unwholesome elements shall be checked 
or removed, our roads shall be extended and improv- 
ed. The groves shall again adorn and refresh our hills, 
our shores shall be opened to travel, and a charming 
water side avenue shall join Sea Side Park to Sasco hill, 
and win admiration and company from hosts of resi- 
dents and visitors as to one of the choice attractions 
of the land. 

Our libraries shall increase, our schools and churches 
shall prosper. The new population will do their part 
and are doing it by industry, thrift, sobriety and rev- 
erence, and the laboring class are setting a good ex- 



62 

ample by earning homes and lands for themselves, 
sending their children to school, and attending church 
with a constancy and zeal that may well be a lesson 
to some persons who are tempted to look down upon 
them. We have no destructive socialism here, and 
the laborer who owns his cottage and acre is as far 
from the tramp or the anarchist as the merchant in 
his mansion with his servants and horses and broad 
fields and fine lawns. 

We mean to remember the old days and worthies, 
and restore whatever has been lost, by careful record 
and faithful service. We do not expect great increase 
or startling prosperity, yet we have good expectations. 
These lovely hills must some day win residents and 
homes, and on either side, population must flow from 
the commercial and manufacturing cities to add to 
our numbers and to help us in our taste and aspiration. 
Especially do we insist upon keeping up the great 
heart that founded and has enobled this place and upon 
measuring life by itself and not by material things, 
caring more for the soul than the body, and finding 
the eternal spirit in all that is good, true and fair. 

In this faith let us interpret the history and cheer 
the prospect of our town, remembering sacredly that 
the influence of the outrage upon our people here, 
and their great suffering, did much to nerve the whole 
country in the final struggle for liberty, and not for- 
getting that the service to culture and religion which 
has been rendered here by scholars, jurists and theo- 
logians, has given this quiet village a place in history 



63 

beyond that which is held by many a field of battle 
with its memorial of cruelty. The town was burned 
but not destroyed. It lived and lives now, and its 
record is part of the history of the nation. In a 
true sense, the success of our thrifty neighbors is our 
success, and already the work done and the wealth 
won and the thought spoken in the communities 
that live within the old limits, are beyond the fondest 
dreams of the ancient founders or of the new pat- 
riots of a hundred years ago. As a summer resident 
here for thirty summers of health and privilege, I 
give thanks with you in the favored experience and 
good hope. 

Let us this day lift up our banner and declare our 
platform. This is Fairfield, this Is Connecticut, this 
is New England and we are Americans. So too we 
are men and we give and take the great blessing of 
our human kind. No hate now to England, and our 
united flags speak the blessings of the child to the 
mother. Would that some great English men of the 
stamp of Arthur P. Stanley and William E. Glad- 
stone, who have been such noble friends to us, could 
answer to this sentiment here and make the Enorllsh 
speaking race feel Its brotherhood of liberty and 
love to-day. 

Even broader than that Is our fellowship. Fair- 
field says here her own name in benediction. Fair- 
field let there be everywhere on earth, and Fair Play 
for all men, by justice, liberty, kindness and good 



64 

works between all nations in the brotherhood of the 
race and under the Providence and Grace of God. 

After an elaborate piece of music by the band, 
Dr. Osgood introduced His Excellency, Governor 
Andrews, with expressing his great pleasure in wel- 
coming the chief magistrate of Connecticut alike 
from respect to him personally and from reverence 
for the noble line of Governors that had presented 
such famous names as John Winthrop, the Puritan 
statesman, and Jonathan Trumbull, the friend of 
Washington, who was Governor a hundred years 
ago. 

GOVERNOR ANDREWS' ADDRESS. 

In the name of the State of Connecticut, whose 
servant I am, I greet this day. Such days as these 
should be commemorated and should be more gen- 
erally observed. Any day in which our patriotism 
and the patriotism of the younger generations may 
be strengthened should receive attention. By this, I 
do not mean to infer that your patriotism is deficient ; 
the heartiness of this commemorative service proves 
the contrary. I come, as the representative of the 
State, to give character to this duty of observing 
these days with patriotic devotion. When I awoke 
this morning and heard the rain pattering upon the 
roof, I thought if General Tryon could not find a 
better day than this to burn a town, he had better 
not burn it at all. It has been a mystery why Sir 



65 

Henry Clinton sent that expedition up Long Island 
sound to ravage these towns. His object, it seems 
to me, was to suppress the onslaught made upon the 
supplies which he sent out for his army. The orator 
of this morning struck the right key to its solution 
when he said Fairfield's privateers and others of the 
coast towns cut off these supplies. But the object 
of the expedition failed, for a voice of horror went 
up from the whole civilized world at the atrocities 
perpetrated, so that he failed to receive the benefits 
which he had hoped from the campaign, and the re- 
capture of Stony Point by Mad Anthony Wayne 
soon after, was in some sense a retribution for the 
burning of Fairfield. But I did not intend to make 
a speech. I desire only to call your attention to 
these historic facts. I come to represent those of 
the state who are not here, and in their names I g-reet 
you, and bend in homage toward the memory of 
those patriots whose names we honor to-day. 

Dr. OsQfood then announced that a telegram had 
been received from the President of the United 
States, whom all Americans honor in his office, and 
who regretted his inability to be present. He also 
read a telegram from George William Curtis, ex- 
pressing his regret at his necessary absence. Many 
letters from distinguished men, such as Robert C. 
Winthrop, Bishop Williams and President Porter 
had been received, and would be published in the 
pamphlet which is to contain the proceedings of the 
day. 



66 

THE CENTENNIAL HYMN, 



BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. 



Our fathers' God ! from out whose hand 
The centuries fall like grains of sand, 
We meet to-day, united, free. 
And loyal to our land and Thee, 
To thank Thee for the era done. 
And trust Thee for the opening one. 

Here where of old, by Thy design, 
The fathers spake that word of Thine, 
Whose echo is the glad refrain 
Of rended bolt and falling chain, 
To grace our festal time, from all 
The zones of earth our guests we call. 

Be with us while the New World greets 
The Old World, thronging all its streets, 
Unveiling all the triumphs won 
By art or toil beneath the sun; 
And unto common good ordain 
This rivalship of hand and brain. 

Thou who hast here in concord furled 
The war flags of a gathered world. 
Beneath our western skies fulfill. 
The Orient's mission of good will, 
And, freighted with Love's golden fleece. 
Send back the Argonauts of peace. 

For art and labor met in truce. 
For beauty made the bride of use, 
We thank Thee, while withal we crave 
The austere virtues strong to save, 
The honor proof to place or gold. 
The manhood never bought nor sold ! 

Oh ! make Thou us, through centuries long, 
In peace secure, and justice strong; 
Around our gift of freedom draw 
The safeguards of Thy righteous law. 
And, cast in some diviner mould. 
Let the new cycle shame the old ! 



67 

Dr. Osgood then spoke of Rev. Augustus F. 
Hewit, D.D., as a distinguished scholar and preacher 
whom Amherst College, his alma mater, had con- 
spicuously honored, and who was a native of Fairfield, 
and son of an eminent pastor here. He regretted 
that Dr. Hewit could not fulfill the hope which his 
pleasant letter in reply to the invitation to speak had 
given. The Rev. Dr. E. P. Rogers, of New York, 
a former resident and always welcome guest, was 
next called upon, and he responded in some very 
pleasant remarks and reminiscences. 

He began his address by relating the story of an 
old minister who always had one formula to open all 
his sermons. This was, after announcing the text, to 
say, '' My subject jiaturally divides itself into three 
parts." Taking as his text one time, "Adam, where 
art thou," he divided it as follows : " Man is generally 
somewhere ; he is usually where he had no business 
to be ; and thirdly, if he did not look out he would 
find himself where he would not want to be." He 
had found himself where he did not want to be, 
called upon to make a speech. He spoke touchingly 
of his early residence in the town, of the impressions 
which he had received in his youth, of the old church, 
the old academy, the noble history, and the hallowed 
associations which clustered about the old town. He 
recalled the great advance that had been made during 
the past one hundred years, in everything that exalts 
and educates a people, and said he was thankful 
to be present as one of the old Fairfield boys, and 



68 

tender his congratulations to the ten thousand 
friends around him upon the history of the town. 
He closed with a strong appeal for protection and 
devotion to the cause of liberty and human rights, 
adding, " May God bless this town forever, and may 
the principles of its fathers, be the principles of their 
children." 

Stirring music was then given by the band, after 
which Dr. Osgood introduced the Rev. Horatio N. 
Powers, D. D., of Bridgeport, as the next speaker, and 
upon a topic congenial with him as the friend of Bry- 
ant, and the author of successful books of thought and 
sentiment in prose and poetry. It is to be hoped he 
said, that good would come from urging the im- 
provement of country towns, and that a new and 
charming avenue may be opened along our shore 
from Sea Side Park to Sasco Hill. 

O^ DR. POWERS ON PUBLIC SPIRIT IN OLD RURAL TOWNS. 

A genuine public spirit is as desirable and becom- 
ing in old country towns as in more populous com- 
munities, and one expression of it is a cultivated 
taste that concerns itself in the appropriate orna- 
mentation of a place. Philip Gilbert Hamerton, 
that accomplished Englishman to whom the art of 
the present in both hemispheres is so much indebted, 
reports a curious but actual conversation that he had 
once while engaged in sketching in a wild region in 
Scotland with a British nobleman, who was there fish- 
ing for trout. His lordship who was a pious person, 
expressed his utter contempt for all art as sinful folly. 



69 

and his belief that those who engaged in such vani- 
ties were in danger of Hell fire. " Hell is real, sir," 
he exclaimed, "there it is gaping before us." This 
anxious nobleman finished his edifying exhortation 
to the artist by singing an air from the opera of the 
Traviata and taking a good drink of whiskey. The 
same kind of consistency has sometimes been observed 
among our own people in days gone by. New 
England has produced persons, — I suppose the 
race is dying out — who could manage to tolerate for 
a few clays flowers on apple trees — (I don't know 
whether they could detect the odor of cider in the 
blossoms) — and flowers on the clover and the potato 
vines, and possibly a few sunflowers with a view to 
the seed, but who would have no such trifles as flow- 
ers about the house for ornament ; indeed, they 
gravely doubted the piety of any who took a real 
delight in such things as roses and carnations. 

These characters would give abundant attention to 
the cattle pen, but precious little to the door-yard ; 
they admired the friskiness of young lambs, but kept 
the little children awfully quiet Their parlors were 
not particularly inspiring to cheerfulness, but then 
they were seldom open except for funerals ! I do not 
suppose that we ought to infer that a decadence of 
religion is going on just because this spirit is not 
peculiar to the present generation. The fact is we 
have witnessed a great improvement in the ornamen- 
tation of our county towns in the last two or three 
decades which is as creditable to the character of 



70 

their inhabitants, as it is to their advantage in many 
ways. I am not advocating the use of ornament to 
the neglect of the practical economies. To pet a 
curious plant and neglect a household duty is no 
compliment to the aesthetic spirit. To decorate the 
piazza and leave the back-yard a maze of ugly litter 
and unwholesome fixtures is as repugnant to a right 
moral sense as to good taste. Judicious ornament 
can and should go along with industrial improvement 
and sanitary precautions. It is plain that the more 
conspicuous the beauty of a village, other things 
being equal, the higher it will stand in the general 
esteem, and the more eagerly it will be sought by 
those who long for rural repose. Wide streets with 
abundant shade, suitable sidewalks, an open gener- 
ous green or park, tasty dwellings with well-kept 
lawns and a variety of shrubbery and flowers, at- 
tractive school houses and churches, the cemeteries 
properly located and embellished, good drives and 
good drainage — all these are important features of a 
pleasant and prosperous country town, and should 
enlist the general attention. The example of a few 
energetic citizens like the distinguished president of 
this occasion, in this direction will have a wholesome 
effect upon the public mind. I am acquainted with 
no place that illustrates more fully what good taste 
can do than the village of Fairfield, which is con- 
spicuous among New England towns for its rare and 
engaging beauty. There are special reasons, it is 
true, why it should be superior in this regard. But 



71 

our inland towns, however remote, will find it to 
their advantage to cultivate their rural charms. Some 
of them are already reaping the rewards of such com- 
mendable endeavor. Beauty has a powerful and 
gracious ministry, and no utilities of industry need 
be dwarfed or paralyzed by its presence. 

One of the most encouraging evidences of an en- 
lightened public spirit in a country town, is a due 
regard to its sanitary interests ; but I must leave this 
point with the simple assertion of their vast impor- 
tance — an importance which is assuming something 
like its proper proportions in the minds of educated 
citizens. 

Another expression of this desirable public spirit 
is an active social element. The days of husking 
and apple-paring bees, quiltings and old-fashioned 
singing schools are about over. Sitting around the 
bar-room stove and lounging on dry goods boxes and 
grocery counters, is hardly to be accepted as proof of 
eminent enterprise or sociability. Where good books 
are read, where schools are influential, where relieion 
is more than a mechanical routine, there will be a 
tendency among the people towards Intercommunion. 
Conversation will be something more than twaddle 
and gossip. There will be neighborly kindness, an 
interest In the higher questions of life, sympathies 
that bring citizens into pleasant and helpful inter- 
course. There Is danger in our country towns, that 
this cordial social spirit be allowed to languish, or 
rather, that It fail to have adequate expression. 



72 

There is often a great deal of kind feeling, hearty 
good will among people that is not sufficiently 
demonstrative. Visiting should be kept up among 
neighbors. Practical benevolence should be culti- 
vated. Social gatherings should be encouraged, and 
intellectual and spiritual interests should be suppor- 
ted by the contact of mind with mind and heart with 
heart. People don't know how rich their stores of 
enjoyment and improvement are until they get into 
intimate relations. 

Finally, every town almost has a history which the 
pride of its inhabitants ought to keep in lively remem- 
brance. There are enough who will preserve the tra- 
ditions of horrors and follies, comic extravagances, ill- 
odored scandal. But the men who have o-one forth to 
act noble parts in life should not be forgotten. The 
significance of important local events should be per- 
petuated. That is a sad state of the popular mind 
where there is no spirit that appreciates and honors 
what is creditable and venerable in the annals of 
the town. Suitable commemorations tend to keep 
alive in the common heart a sense of obligation to 
the past ; they stimulate the best mind of the present 
with examples of noble citizenship and foster the 
reverence that should be paid to the illustrious dead, 
This phrase of public spirit cannot be too much com- 
mended. For one I heartily rejoice in such a becom- 
ing and inspiring illustration of it as that which 
signalizes this occasion. May Fairfield forever be an 
example of what a rural town ought to be. 



12> 

After Hail Columbia by the band, the President 
referred to the welcome presence of our own towns- 
people from Greenfield and Southport, and called 
upon Rev. Edward H. Wells of Southport, whose 
delicate health did not allow him to speak at length. 

Remarks of Rev. Edward H. Wells : 

He spoke for Southport and for good neighbor- 
hood, also for the whole Union. He rejoiced" he 
said, with Gov. Hampton, whom he had heard say he 
''was glad that the war of 1861 turned out as it did ; 
that the Union ought never to have been touched." 
This occasion he said was a national one, and he, a 
southerner, rejoiced with the people of Fairfield. He 
was proud of Connecticut, and there was not a state 
in the Union but what had felt its power and influ- 
ence. He quoted the late John C. Calhoun, as say- 
ing he owed to New England all the might and power 
he possessed. He hoped that the people of the 
north and of the south would present such a solid 
front for the perpetuity of the Union that no hand 
would dare to again assail its flag or tamper with its 
constitution. " God bless you all here to-day, God 
bless Connecticut, God bless my Country." 

After this "■ Columbia the Gem of the Ocean " 
was sung by the united Choirs. 

Then Dr. Osgood said that the next speaker had 
been brought by express, a fifteen hours journey to 
meet this occasion, and alike as an old Fairfield resi- 
dent and representative, and as a typical American, 
he belonged here now. It had been his task to give 



74 

our people innocent recreation — to make Americans 
laugh without being foolish. His motto had been 
"laugh and be wise" by amusement without impro- 
priety or excess. He had reason to thank Mr. Bar- 
num for the finest music he had ever had, and for 
allowing the American people to hear Jenny Lind 
sing " I know that my Redeemer liveth," Mr. Bar- 
num will now speak upon " Self control essential in 
a Republic." 

MR. BARNUM ON SELF CONTROL IN REPUBLICS. 

Mr. Barnum said he supposed he should have to 
make a spread-eagle speech, but he thought it would 
be hard to squeeze the eagle into five minutes ; it 
generally took orators an hour and a half. In 1844 
I was present in Glasgow, Scotland, when the free- 
dom of the city was presented to Lord John Russell. 
His lordship in the course of his reply to the "Ad- 
dress " said, " Great Britain clothes America and I 
am willing that America should continue in part to 
feed Great Britain." 

In those days we imported most of our cloth and 
other manufactures from England. But if Gen. 
Tryon could see the progress which we have made as 
a nation in one hundred years, his government would 
hesitate before they again let him " try on " the firing 
of our towns and cities. The World's Fairs of Lon- 
don, Paris, Vienna and Philadelphia have opened the 
eyes of the old world. We supply them with our 
agricultural implements, sewing machines and watch- 
es, our muslins and calicos are selling in Manchester, 



75 

and our cutlery is competing in Sheffield with the 
manufacturers of that city. Our inventions and 
"Yankee Notions," are spread all over the civilized 
world, the ocean is covered with ships carrying to 
Europe our grain, beef, horses, cattle, cheese, and 
even fresh oysters, lobsters, peaches and melons. 

England, which for scores of years has boasted 
of her high bred race horses sees the prizes carried 
off by Mr. Lorillard's Parole — and although she still 
sings " Britannia rules the waves," and glories in her 
annual Oxford and Cambridge boat races, Hanlan 
goes across the water and with his scull and oars 
whips them all out of their boots. England sends 
her " walkist " to America and takes the "belt" but 
scarcely has he touched the British shores before our 
American Weston triumphantly captures it again. 

No nation on earth has progressed in material and 
other respects as has this nation since the beautiful 
town of Fairfield was burned by the British one 
hundred years ago to-day. 

No nation on the face of the earth to-day is so 
happy and prosperous as ours, and no nation pos- 
sesses the same elements of future greatness^of 
peace and plenty. 

But "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," es- 
pecially under a Republican government. A govern- 
ment of the people by the people, must be charac- 
terized by honesty, wisdom and justice. The wise 
man truly said : " Righteousness exalteth a nation." 
Rome was a great and proud Republic, but her 
wickedness and folly brought her to the dust. 



76 

No republic can live, nor had ought to live, whose 
laws are made under the influence of hatred, selfish- 
ness or bad whiskey. The rum traffic and rum- 
drinking habits exercise an almost omnipotent power 
and influence over our political elections. This giant 
evil of our land concentrates and combines the crim- 
inal and vicious classes, and delivers the government 
of our cities into their hands. Consequently many 
members of city " Common Councils," and even of 
Legislatures and of Congress, elected by the vile 
votes of the rum power, would be a disgrace to a 
government of African savages. The votes of 
American citizens are counted and not weighed ; 
the ballot of the poor drunkard in the ditch, bought 
with a pint of whiskey, counts as much as the vote 
of His Excellency, our worthy Governor, hence if 
we would live as a Republic we must reform, re- 
fine and elevate the poor victims of the rum delu- 
sion. The whole essence of the Gospel and the 
Christian religion consists of love to God and to 
man ; and on these two commandments our Sa- 
viour said hung " «// the law and the prophets." As 
American citizens then, if we would guard and pre- 
serve our liberties, our happiness and our true great- 
ness, we must work for public good. Not only our 
churches and schools must correctly teach total ab- 
stinence from all that intoxicates, but our personal 
efforts must be devoted to educating the people, en- 
couraging them to honor and practice labor, to deal 
with each other as brethren of one great family, and 



11 

to instill into the minds of the rising generation the 
great truth that the human brain (which gives us 
reason and distinguishes us from the brute creation 
whose instinct only guides them) must be kept clear, 
and umnuddled, if we aspire to be a great noble free 
people governing ourselves. Business success comes 
from three things, industry, perseverance, and a clear 
intellect to lay plans and to execute them. To pre- 
serve this great nation we must continually work and 
act and do. It is a glorious practice to celebrate such 
days as this and our national birth-day, for it keeps 
up our enthusiasm for self government, but talk 
without labor will set the nation asleep and betray 
her into the hands of the enemy. It is very nice to 
run up our flags and bunting, to play Hail Columbia 
and Yankee Doodle, but to make our liberties and 
national happiness permanent, Yankee Doodle is 
not enough, it must be Yankee Doodle-<^(9. 

The band then played the old Yankee tune w^ith 
remarkable spirit, and the President introduced Pro- 
fessor Dwight, of Yale College, grandson of the 
celebrated President Dwight, who for years taught 
and preached-in Greenfield Hill, and who wrote the 
poem of that name. 

Professor Dwight sDoke in substance as follows : 
The People, said he, believed in self-government 
but had been unable to exercise it or he should not 
be there to make a speech. He said that the only 
two poems President Dwight had written were 
" Greenfield Hill " and the " Road to Canaan." What- 



78 

ever attribute had been transmitted to the speaker it 
had not been the poetic. The speaker said he had 
endeavored in his humble way to teach men that they 
might lead men to Canaan. An able New Haven 
clergyman once, preaching upon the character of 
Peter, remarked that he received his remarkable 
energy from his mother. When the members of the 
congregation returned home they referred to their 
Bibles and found that Peter's remarkable energy came 
from his wife's mother, and so he had come and had 
received energy to make a speech from his wife's 
mother, a very pleasant relation, however. 

The President then referred to the close relation 
existing between Fairfield and Green's Farms, once 
called the West Parish of Fairfield, and suffering with 
this town in the raid of Tryon. Rev. B. J. Relyea 
of Green's Farms responded : 

He said that he thought it was the glory of those 
who repelled the British that they had such worthy 
descendants. It would not be to their credit if there 
were none who esteemed their valor and patriotism 
enough to commemorate their brave deeds. People 
go to Rome and Athens, not to see what has been 
accomplished in modern times, but to see what the 
fathers did. He was glad General Tryon had not 
left any old ruins to be gazed at in Fairfield. He 
spoke a word for the brave women of 1779, who, 
when the men were away fighting, dared to face the 
enemy at home. 



79 

The President showed a cannon ball that had been 
iired from the American guns upon the British from the 
hills and said that was a sugar plum for Tryon's men 
that was well deserved. Sweeter missiles were now 
interchanged, and our programme indicates our spirit 
now towards England as Sir Edward Thornton's kind 
letter indicates Englands' sentiment towards America 
There is to be held, August i ith, at Guild Hall, Lon- 
don, an International Code Congress to which some 
persons present, like himself, had been invited, under 
the presidency of the Chief Justice of England, 
This day's proceedings might tell a little upon the 
future law and policy of Nations. 

Rev. John A. Buckingham, of Massachusetts, was 
next introduced as from the noble old Bay State, and 
as the son of the once famous Boston editor, Joseph 
T. Buckingham : Mr. Buckingham made the last 
speech and spoke of the connections of his ancestors 
with the State and its achievements. 

The President then announced that the time had 
arrived for closing this stirring meeting, and that 
after the hymn " America" had been sung by the cho- 
rus and the people, the procession would form to 
escort the Governor to the station. The hymn was 
sung with enthusiasm, and with three cheers from the 
great assembly of guests and hosts for the success 
of the occasion, and for the future good feeling of 
neighbors and countrymen, and especially for the 
ladies who had spread the tables with plenty, the 



8o 

procession was formed. The band, with the police, 
led the way. Then came the Governor and other 
officers of the day in a barouch drawn by four horses, 
with a long line of carriages and people on foot. 
The procession passed down Beach Lane into Main 
Street by the old historical sites, and reached the 
station in time for the train to Bridgeport at half 
past four. 

Thus closed a day unprecedented in the annals of 
this quiet old town, and full of enjoyment and in- 
struction. A large number of our people by their 
contributions of money and provisions helped on the 
hospitality of the occasion, and the great assembly 
of guests received the hospitality shown them in a 
courtesy both honorable to them and acceptable to 
us. 

How many persons were present, we cannot say 
with certainty, but the number rose into the thous- 
ands, and, whilst cautious observers were content to 
say that three thousand persons were in sight at one 
time on the Green, more enthusiastic spectators 
claim that in the course of the day Fairfield showed 
ten thousand people and one thousand vehicles in the 
streets. 

The old times and the new met together, especial- 
ly when the President of the day drank the health 
of the Governor and the ladies, in the silver tankard 
that belonged to the Rev. Andrew Eliot, in 1779. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



We publish such portion of our correspondence 
as is hkely most to interest readers and to add to 
the historical value of this record. 

[Besides sending a telegram, President Hayes 
honored the occasion by the following official letter :] 

From President Hayes : 

Executive Mansion, 

Washington, July 7, 1879. 
Dear Sir : — I am directed by the President, to acknowledge 
with thanks, the receipt of your favor of the 27th ultimo, and to 
express his regret that he will be unable to attend the Centennial 
Commemoration of the Burning of Fairfield 

Very truly yours, 

W. K. ROGERS, 

Private Secretary^ 
Mr. Wm. a. Beers, 

Secretary^ 6^r., 

Fairfield., Conn. 



From Governor Andrews: _ 

Executive Department, 
Hartford, Conn. 

Litchfield, yuly i, 1879. 
Wm. a. Beers: 

My Dear Sir : — I propose to come down by the first train from 
here in the morning, which will bring me to Bridgeport at about 10 
o'clock, A. M. I do not know how long it will take to come over 
to Fairfield — I shall come by the first train. 

Perhaps you can write me what train I had best take ; I desire 
to suit your convenience. 

Yours very truly, 

CHARLES B. ANDREWS. 



82 

From Sir Edward Thornton : 

British Legation, 
Newburyport, Mass., /u/y 3, 1879. 
Sir : — I am much obliged to you for the kind invitation which 
you have forwarded me, to be present at the ceremony which is 
to take place at Fairfield on the 8th inst. I regret, however, that 
previous engagements will prevent my availing myself of it, I, 
at the same time, beg to assure you of the high appreciation 
which I entertain of the good-will shown towards the country 
which I have the honor to represent, and to express my hope that 
the friendship which now exists between the two countries may 
never be interrupted. 

I remain, Sir, truly yours, 

EDWD. THORNTON. 
Wm. a. Beers, 

Secretary, &'c., 

Fairfield, Conn. 



From the Right Rev. John Williams : 

MiDDLETOWN, J^uly 2, 1879. 

My Dear Dr. Osgood : — I very much regret that an impera- 
tive engagement will deprive me of the pleasure of being at Fair- 
field on the 8th. With every good wish for the success — of which 
there can be no doubt — of t^e celebration, 

I am, faithfully yours, 

J. WILLIAMS. 



From the Right Rev. Bishop Potter : 

Rye Beach, N. H., yiily 8, 1879. 
Dear Dr. Osgood : — I thank you very much for your kindness 
in sending me a card of invitation to the Fairfield Centennial. 
It was a pleasant conception and your proceedings are nicely 

arranged. 

Your card came to me only this morning ; therefore, as to an 
appearance at Fairfield, you must accept the will for the deed. 

I am, affectionately yours, 

H. POTTER. 
The Rev. Dr. Osgood. 



83 

From President Noah Porter : 

Yale College, 
New Haven, Conn., July 3, 1879. 
Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D., Preside?it, &c. : 

My Dear Sir : — It would give me especial pleasure to be 
present at the Centennial Commemoration of the Burning ot 
Fairfield, which event, for special reasons, took strong hold of 
my youthful imagination, but a previous engagement makes this 
impossible. With sincere regard and thanks 

I am, very truly yours, 

N. PORTER. 



From the Hon. Robert C Winthrop : 

Brookline, Mass., July 4, 1879. 

My Dear Dr. Osgood : — Your programme for the Centennial 
at Fairfield is most tempting, and your invitation is most kind. 
My ancestral ties to Connecticut are hardly less strong than those 
to Massachusetts, and I would gladly unite in such a commemo- 
ration. It would be a peculiar pleasure to me to listen to your 
own address, as well as to the historic discourse of Dr. Rankin. 
And then to spend a day or two at Greenfield Hill, and enjoy its 
inspiring charms, would fill up the measure of a delightful occa- 
sion, which I am deeply sorry to miss. But I must deny myself. 
Neither engagements nor health will allow me to adventure on 
such an excursion. 

Pray present my most grateful acknowledgments to your com- 
mittee, and accept my best thanks for yourself. 

Ever faithfully, your friend and serv't, 

ROB'T C. WINTHROP. 
Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D. 



From the Rev. Dr. Lyman Atwater : 

College of New Jersey, 

Princeton, Jti^/y i, 1879. 
My Dear Dr. Osgood : — I deeply regret that prior engage- 
ments will prevent my acceptance of the kind invitation to be 
present at the Centennial Commemoration of the Burning of 
Fairfield by the British a century ago. It would give me 
great pleasure to attend the exercises on that occasion, so inter- 



84 

esting in itself, while it is made doubly so to me, both by manifold 
associations and memories, and by the prominent part which 
friends so valued by me, and so competent for the task, are to 
take in its exercises. 

These have a sad aspect if we look only at the savage burning 
of the beautiful village in violation of all the rules of civilized 
warfare, which, in a day, made houseless and homeless a body of 
people as elevated as ever dwelt in like habitations. But it has a 
joyous and exultant side. The patriotism, valor, and self-sacrifice 
of our ancestors were only more fully proved and invigorated by 
these prodigious sufferings which were the price of the liberty 
and independence of themselves and their children. In these we 
joy and glory. These and the victories achieved by them, should 
be celebrated and perpetuated in honorable remembrance by be- 
coming festivities. 

It was my privilege during my early ministry in Fairfield to 
know and commune with some of those noble men, and " honor- 
able women, not a few," who shared in these privations, conflicts, 
and triumphs. 

Although in person necessarily absent, in heart I shall be with 
you in the approaching celebration. 

Yours very truly, 

LYMAN H. ATWATER. 

p. s. — It may or may not fall in your way to note — what you 
doubtless are aware of — the close and honorable connection of 
the town of Fairfield with the higher institutions of learning in 
the country. Not only were sons of the earlier ministers of 
Fairfield leading members of the Corporation of Yale College, 
but, near the beginning of this century. Dr. Timothy Dwight was 
called from Greenfield Church to the Presidency, and Prof. Ben- 
jamin Silliman, son of General Silliman of Holland Hill, promi- 
nent in the revolutionary war, was called to a Professorship in 
Yale College, positions which they so adorned, as to contribute 
more to the advancement of that college than any other two men 
in its whole history. Rev. Aaron Burr, father of Aaron Burr, 
Vice-President of the United States, and son-in-law of President 
Edwards, was the first President of Princeton College after it was 
organized as a College, and successful and honored administrator 
of its affairs. Dr. Heman Humphries, pastor of the old First 
Church of Fairfield, became President of Amherst College about 



85 

a half century ago, and it had a rapid growth under his adminis- 
tration. The town has furnished students, not only for Yale, but 
for Harvard, Princeton, Williams, Amherst, and other Colleges, 
some of whom have done honor to their alma mater^ and their 
native town. 



From the Rev. Dr. E. P. Humphrey : 

Louisville, Ky., y"///y 3, 1879. 

Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D., President^ dr'c. 
« 

William A. Beers, Secretary, qt'c. 

My Dear Sirs : — I am honored by your invitation to be pres- 
ent at the approaching Centennial Commemoration to be held in 
Fairfield. I regret that I cannot go thither at that time. 

It is my happiness to be recognized in this invitation, as a 
native-born Fairfield man. I have been unable to visit the town, 
except at long intervals, since my boyhood ; but I am of opinion 
that no true man will allow absence, or the lapse of time to defeat 
his birth-rights in our dear old " Half-shire." 

I indulge myself in the pleasant thought that I sustain a certain 
near relation to the people whose property was destroyed. My 
honored father, the Rev. Dr. Heman Humphrey, became the 
minister of Fairfield in 1806, only twenty-seven years after the 
burning. We may assume that not a few of his parishioners 
were among the sufferers. The names of the principal families 
of the town were always household words in our house ; and our 
parents taught their children to hold these people in honor and 
love. You say well, that among them were some of the best 
^'men and women of the land." 

You will be interested in a graphic description of Fairfield in 
1806, which I find in my father's auto-biography. Here it is: 

"Fairfield was then a considerable village, and the half-shire, 
town of the county; but very plain in its external appearance 
Not more than four or five of the houses, I believe had ever been 
painted, and these were now so weather-beaten that the signs of 
paint had well nigh disappeared. Fairfield had been burnt during 
the revolution. By this calamity the inhabitants were very much 
impoverished, and were obliged to rebuild in as plain a style as 
was consistent with the comfort of their families." 

"Some had more property and intelligence than others; but 
while none were rich, few were very poor. And there was a free- 



86 

dom and cordiality in social intercourse which was delightful 
Whole neighborhoods lived together like one great family of many 
branches. This was ascribed to the fellowship of suffering pro- 
duced by the calamities of war." Thus far the old-time minister 
of our native town. 

And now, may that Great Being, the God of our Fathers, who 
bore the generation of 1639 across the seas, and who sustained 
the generation of 1779 amidst the flames — may He be the 
dwelling place of their children in all generations ! 

Very respectfully yours, 

EDWARD P. HUMPHREY. 



From the Rev. Augustine F. Hewit, D.D. : 
Paulist Covnent, 

59th Street and 9th Avenue, 

New York, June 28, 1879. 

Rev, and Dear Sir : — I have the pleasure of acknowledging^ 
the receipt of your kind note, and also of the Secretary's official 
invitation to the Commemoration at Fairfield on the 8th of July, 
which arrived only this morning. 

If I find it convenient to come up on that day, I will very 
gladly comply with your request, by making a short speech if 
time permits, and the addresses are not too numerous and long 
for the good humor of the audience. 

The occasion is an interesting one, and all the circumstances 
of place and time are favorable for such a celebration, if only the 
elements are propitious. I trust you may have a bright, cool day, 
with a friendly cloud to veil the mid-day sun, and no rain to in- 
terrupt the enjoyment of the occasion. I have no doubt all pres- 
ent will be disposed to offer up, sincerely, the prayer of the 
soldier's little boy, " Oh ! Lord, let there be no more wars." 

I remain, yours truly, 

AUGUSTINE F. HEWIT. 
Rev. Dr. Osgood, 

Fairfield, Conn. 



87 

From the Hon. Solomon Lincoln : 

HiNGHAM, July 2, 1879. 

Rev. Samuel Osgood, President. 

Dear Sir : — I have received your circular inviting me to be 

present at the Centennial Commemoration of the Burning of 

Fairfield, in 1779. -^ regret that the state of my health is such 

that it will preclude my acceptonce of your courteous invitation. 

With great respect, 

I am, your ob't serv't, 

SOLOMON LINCOLN. 



From George F)imon, Fsq. : 

Milan, O., June 30, 1879. 

Gentlemen : — Your circular-letter inviting me to be present 
at a Centennial Commemoration of the anniversary of the burn- 
ing of the houses, stores and churches in old Fairfield, by the 
British troops, was received by due course of mail. 

I feel flattered to know that I was remembered — but, yet, I 
may have some claims to notice on such an occasion, as I am the 
oldest male descendent of my Grandfather, William Dimon, whose 
house and buildings were burned — and, also, of my Grandfather, 
John Andrews, who served his country as a soldier seven years 
in the war of the revolution, and who lived his last days in Green's. 
Farms. I well remember the many stories he told of hardship 
and suffering during that time, and, although I have now connec- 
tions in England, I feel a little guilty when I think of the red- 
coats of that day — and now, after thirty-four years residence in 
the land we once called New Connecticut, my feelings of attach- 
ment to my native land are as strong as ever. Mill River, South- 
port, and Fairfield will always seem pleasant and homelike. 

As a boy, and young man, I knew personally all the leading 
men of Fairfield and vicinity, and we looked up to them with 
veneration and respect, feeling that they were very great men. 

There was Gen. Burr, Col. Burr, Sam'l Rowland, Sheriff Dimon, 
Doctor Hull, Deacon Judson, our Pastor, Rev. Humphrey, Roger 
M. Sherman, Judge Sturges, Capt. Gould Jennings, Capt. A. Ben- 
son, Lothrop Lewis, Gould Allen, James Knapp, Jeremiah Jen- 
nings, and old uncle Anse Trubee, and his flock of sheep. All 
of these men and many others I remember, and now, in passing 
through the town, it seems as if I ought to see some of them 
but we pass away and everything changes. I find now but few 



of the landmarks of other days, notably two that don't change ; 
one, Hyde's Pond, another, the old academy, where, in my go- 
to-school days, Murray's English, Virgil's Latin and Homer's 
Greek, were themes of much hard study by very many young men 
fitting themselves for a college course. 

I regret exceedingly that circumstances prevent my being with 
you on this occasion. It would be a treat, indeed, to see and 
meet so many of your people, and help commemorate the day. 

Hoping you may have a pleasant day, and have very many with 
you, and that your historic speaker will tell to them a good 
story, while 

I remain, yours very respectfully, 

George Dimon. 
Rev. Sam'l Osgood, D. D., President^ 
Wm. a. Beers, Secretary^ 

Fairfield Commemoration, 

Fairfield, Ct. 



From the Rev- Edivard E. Beardsley, D. D., L. L. D. 

New Haven, Conn., July 5th, 1879. 
Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D., L. L. D., President. 

My Dear Doctor : — I have been favored with an invitation 
to be present the 8th inst. at the Centennial Commemoration o^ 
the Burning of Fairfield. It would afford me much pleasure to 
witness the exercises, but my engagements at home will not 
permit me to leave on that day. 

These Centennials bring out the history, so far as it has been 
preserved, of some of the more important local events of the 
Revolution, but they have no power to reproduce the scenes of 
suffering and of terror through which our forefathers were com- 
pelled to pass. We cannot, by stepping back a century, measure 
the degree of excitement and feeling which prevailed among both 
the adherents of the crown and the supporters of independence. 
They shared alike in the devastations of the invading army, and 
my historical researches have led me to believe that in the heats 
and passions of the revolution, scant justice was sometimes done 
to those who could not in their consciences favor the war, yet 
stoutly opposed taxation without representation, and preferred to 
vindicate their rights as British subjects within the colonies. 
This was eminently the case with Dr. Wm. Sam'l Johnson, of 



89 

Stratford, a statesman whom Connecticut honored by appointing 
him one of the delegates to the convention which framed the 
Federal constitution, and by subsequently choosing him her first 
Senator in Congress. 

The clergy and members of the Church of England in the 
colonies, were for the most part loyal to the King, but the Tories, 
as they were stigmatized, were not all of that religious faith. 
Here, in New Haven, the same expedition which invaded and 
burnt Fairfield, met with sympathizers who belonged to the Stand- 
ing Order, and one of the most conspicuous and wealthy among 
them — a distinguished lawyer who had been for nearly a score of 
years a communicant member of the First Congregational Church 
— accepted for himself and his family the protection of Governor 
Tryon, and left with the troops when they re-embarked and sailed 
away to apply the torch to your defenceless town. With the 
destruction of the stores and houses in Fairfield went the Episco- 
pal Church, and, at a later date, two others were burnt in the 
Colony by the very invaders whose cause they were supposed to 
maintain. 

We must allow what has passed into history to stand, but it is 
well in these days to recognize the fact that, in the descendants 
of the participants of the Revolutionary War, on both sides, has 
flowed some of the best blood of Connecticut. From Patriot and 
Tory families have come those who have contributed to the honor 
and prosperity of the State and the nation, and made names for 
themselves which will live in literature, science, and religion, when 
generation after generation has passed away. 

Thanking you for the invitation, 

I remain, very truly yours, 

E. E. BEARDSLEY. 



From the Rev. Dr. T. IV. Coit : 

MiDDLETOWN, CONN. 

Wm. a. Beers, Esq. 

Dear Sir : — Many thanks for an invitation to the Centennial 
Commemoration at Fairfield. I should like to witness it ; but 
since the death of my oldest son, I have avoided publicity as 

much as possible. 

Yours very respectfully, 

T. W. Coit. 
W. A. Beers, Esq., 

Secretary, &=€. 



90 

From the Rev- George P. Fisher^ D. £>., L. L. D. : 

New Haven, July 7, 1879, 
Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D. 

My Dear Sir : — I regret that I am prevented from accepting 
the invitation with which I have been honored, to attend the 
Commemoration of the sufferings and self-sacrifice of the inhabi- 
tants of Fairfield which is to be held to-morrow. 

With sincere thanks to the Committee for the favor of an invi- 
tation, 

Believe me, Dear Sir, 

Yours faithfully, 

GEORGE P. FISHER. 
Rev. Dr. Osgood. 



From the Rev. J. T. Headley : 

Newburgh, /i/Iy 5, 1879. 

My Dear Sir : — I regret that my engagements will prevent 
me from accepting your polite invitation to be present at the 
Centennial Commemoration of the Burning of Fairfield, on the 
8th inst. I take a great interest in all these centennial celebra- 
tions of the important events of our revolution. They are oc- 
curring at the right time, and tend to rekindle the interest in that 
unparalelled struggle for freedom that the stirring events of our 
late civil war had well nigh extinguished. 

Very sincerely yours, 

J. T. HEADLEY. 
Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D. 



From the Hon. Divight Morris : 

Bridgeport, /u?ie 30, 1879. 

My Dear Sir : — Your kind invitation to attend the Centennial 
Celebration of the Burning of Fairfield, is received. 

It will afford me great pleasure to attend, and join with you all, 
but do not call on me to speak. The names on the programme 
who make addresses are too far ahead of me to permit it. 

Very truly yours, 

dwight morris. 

Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D. 



91 

From Colonel Robert C. Wet?nore : 

Orange Valley, 

New Jersey, yttly 3, 1879. 

Rev. and Dear Sir : — Your very kind and flattering re- 
membrance of myself in your Secretary's transmitted invita- 
tion, for my presence at your Centennial Commemoration of the 
Burning of Fairfield by the British troops, July the 8th, 1779, is- 
duly received. 

If a descendant of one of Fairfield's most fearless defenders 
(Quartermaster Richard Hubbell), during that perilous period of 
its history, which your proposed celebration is to recall, then I 
am indeed worthy of the distinction your invitation confers. 

You will readily believe I am deeply grieved that my connec- 
tion with the celebration of the 4th instant, deprives me of the 
pleasure of again meeting cherished friends upon that venerated 
old " Green," and from adding some, perhaps, interesting his- 
torical reminiscences of past generations, who were wont to- 
assemble there in council. 

With very high respect, &c., 

Robert C. Wetmore, 
To Samuel Osgood, D. D., To the manor born. 

President, ar^c. 



From the Mayor of New Haven : 

City Clerk's Office, No. 7 City Hall,. 
New Haven, July 7, 1879. 

Dear Sirs : — Your kind invitation to participate in your Cen- 
tennial was duly received, but owing to the excitement and rush 
attendant on our own celebration, I have not been able to give 
an earlier answer. Personally, if possible, I shall be present. 
As to the Aldermen and Councilmen, they have held no meeting, 
since the arrival of your invitation. The Aldermen meet this 
evening, when I shall lay the matter before them. 

Hoping that your celebration may be as successful as ours has. 

been, I remain. 

Yours respectfully, 

H. B. BiGELOW, Mayor, 
Com. on Centennial Celebration, 
Fairfield, Co?in. 



92 

Fi'om A. Foote, Clerk of Selectmen of New Haven : 

Office of Selectmen and Town Agent, 
No. 2 City Hali, 

New Haven, Ct., July 7, 1879. 
Wm. a. Beers, Esq. 

Sec'y on the Committee on Centennial Commemoration. 
Dear Sir : — Your invitation to the New Haven Board of select- 
men to be present and participate in the exercises on the occasion 
■of the Centennial Commemoration of the invasion of the town of 
Fairfield by the British troops, has been duly received and ordered 
placed on file. 

In reply I am instructed by the Board to say to you, that this 
occasion, occuring so soon after a like occasion in our own town 
and city, and the usual press of business in consequence of semi- 
annual adjustments necessitates, with regret, a declination of your 
very kind and cordial invitation. 

Very respectfully yours, 
A. FOOTE, 

Clerk Board of Selectmen. 



George N. French^ Esq., Chairman of Cojnmon Council of Bridgeport. 

Bridgeport, July, 4th, 1879. 
W. A. Beers, Secretary, 

Dear Sir :— The Common Council having voted to accept your 
very kind invitation to participate with you in the commemoration 
services, and having appointed the undersigned chairman of a 
Committee to make the necessary arrangements to this end, I would 
be pleased to hear from you in reference to your plans, and as to 
the time you wish the Council to arrive at your place and as to 
whether you are to have a parade. Any information in regard to 
the matter will aid the Committee very much in the discharge of 
their duty. Would you prefer to have us come by cars or in 

carriages ? 

Very truly yours, 

GEORGE N. FRENCH, 

Chairman of Committee. 



From P. T. Barnum Esq.: 

MoNTPELiER, Vt., July, 5th, 1879. 

My Dear Dr. Osgood : — Yours of yesterday arrived on this, my 
69th birthday. You say I have made the nation laugh and be 



93 

wise. Yet I have tried to have them laugh without doing it 
through bad whiskey. I have not taught them to laugh at vulgar- 
ity, obscenity nor profanity. 

As the French poet did not care who made the laws, if he 
might write the ballads of a nation, so I have felt in a degree in 
relation to the anmsements of a nation. The people will have 
recreation — their natures need and demand it — he who will 
provide it, freed from all poisons, is in some regard a public bene- 
factor. My chief object in continuing a public menagerie is to 
elevate and refine such popular amusements as are found under 
traveling tents. 

I shall be tired after my fifteen hours railroad journey, reaching 
Bridgeport at 10.05 Tuesday, A. M. I shall then see, I hope, by 
the Bridgeport newspapers at what hour the Fairfield proceedings 
take place, and try to be on hand. I have no idea what I can say^ 
but will try and think, and keep within the ten minutes. 

Truly yours, 

P. T. BARNUM. 

From T. P. Handy, Esq.: 

Cleveland, O., July, 3d, 1879. 
Wm. a. Beers, Secretary 

My Dear Sir : — Please accept my thanks for the honor of your 
kind invitation for the 8th inst. at the Centennial Commemoration 
in the old town of Fairfield, with my regrets that I shall be unable 
to be present or to participate in the services of the day. 

I esteem it a pleasure that I was once a resident of that beautiful 
town and enjoyed the society of some of its esteemed and valued 
citizens. 

I shall always cherish those pleasant memories, and rejoice in 
its continued attractions and prosperity. 

Thanking you again for the extended invitation, and trusting that 
the occasion will be a pleasant one to all, 

I remain, with much esteem, 

Your sincere friend, 

T. P. HANDY. 



From Mrs. E. H. Schenck : 

Southport Conn., June, 26th, 1879. 
My Dear Dr. Osgood : — Since I saw you this afternoon I have 
thought of a few things in our family history which you may 



94 

perhaps like to know about, and which are interesting in the 
liistory of our town, and they are these : 

My father's grandfather, Nathan Godfrey, was one of the 
earhest settlers of Greens Farm's, and was also one of fourteen 
to build the First Congregational "" meeting house" at that place, 
of which the Rev. Mr. Relyea speaks in his centennial history of 
the settlement of Green's Farms. 

My father represents the third generation of his family, and 
was named after his father, Jonathan Godfrey, the son of Nathan 
Godfrey. 

My brother being dead, I, as the oldest of the family represent 
the fourth generation, and Charles Godfrey, (my nephew and the 
•son of my eldest brother) represents the fifth generation of our 
family who have lived in this town, in this county, for over two 
hundred years. 

Then, again, my mother's family were the old Hubbell family at 
Greenfield, who also date back to the settlement of Greenfield, 
My mother's mother was a Jennings of the old Jennings family 
that first settled Fairfield. And as my father's grandfather mar- 
ried a Jennings, no less than three of the early settlers head our 
family tree. In fact four families head our family tree, for my 
father's mother, who was a Whitehead, dates back to the first set- 
tlement of Green's Farms. 

It cannot be often said that a family have lived so continuously 
in one place. 

The old Bulkley family, of which mention is made in the history 
of the burning of Fairfield, are not the Bulkley family of Southport, 
but the one at Green's Farms of which Abraham Bulkley and 
Joel B. Bulkley are the descendants, I notice this because the 
Bulkleys of this place are confused with this family at Green's 
Farms. It was Abraham Bulkley, who opened his house to our 
church of England families after the little church near Mrs. 
Rowland's, was burned by the British, which house still stands on 
the East side of the Green, at Fairfield. Do you not think that 
this Joel B. Bulkley, who is now over eighty, should be invited to 
represent so loyal a family in church and state in the history of our 
town. They are highly respectable farmers. My mother has often 
told me that Abraham Bulkley, of revolutionary remembrance, was 
a man of education, and a gentleman in every way. A son of this 
Joel Bulkley often sings in our church at Fairfield with Mrs. Lom- 
bard. 



95 

Please pardon my long note, allowing me to say one thing more 
about my own family, which is that they were of French and 
English origin, our family motto being ''^ Deus et libertas'' or God 
and liberty — God and freedom, GODFREE — GODFREY. 

Believe me. 

Truly yours, 

Mrs. E. H. Schenck. 

Joel B. Bulkey's address would be at Southport, as he lives on 
the border line at Sasco. 



J^'rom Captain Isaac Jennings : 

Captain Jennings sent us the following account of a Fairfield 
lady, who made the first American flag of the present pattern. 
Death of Mrs. Captain Reid. 

We regret to announce the demise, at Wheeling, Virginia, on 
Sunday morning, the 19th inst., of Mrs. Reid, wife of Captain 
Samuel C. Reid, so distinguished in our naval records for his de- 
fence of the brig General Armstrong against the English squadron, 
at the port of Fayal, in 18 14. Mrs. Reid was the daughter of 
Captain Nathan Jennings, of Fairfield, Connecticut, who shared 
the fatigues and glory of Trenton in the Continental Army, under 
George Washington. 

Mrs. Reid was early distinguished for beauty and talent ; and 
when her husband's glory made her house the centre of much 
literary and patriotic attraction, her clear intellect and domestic 
virtues shed a charm and a grace worthy alike of her enviable 
position and that of her visitors, among whom were some of the 
most distinguished persons of the day, including Gov. Clinton, 
Gov. Tompkins, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Dr. Sam Mitchell, 
Judge Johnson, of the Supreme Court, with the Tones, Emmetts 
and McNevins, Dr. Francis, and others among the oldest of our 
•citizens. In her devotion to a large family of children Mrs. Reid 
was unrivaled, and in her patriotic ardor she was alike worthy of 
her husband and her father. In 181 8, with the assistance of some 
young ladies, she made the first flag of the Union, as adopted by 
the Congress of the United States in that year, and which was the 
■design of Captain Reid. On the admission of Indiana into the 
Union, in 1816, the Hon. P. H. Wendover, of New York, sug- 
gested to Congress the expediency of altering the then flag. 



96 

Captain Reid undertook it, and on the 4th of April, 181 8, a bill 
was passed "to establish the flag of the United States." The fol- 
lowing letter chronicles the date of its hoisting, and makes hon- 
orable mention of the deceased lady. 

Washington, April 13, 1818. 

Dear Sir : I have just arrived in time to inform you that the new flag of 
Congress Hall arrived here per mail this day, and was hoisted to replace the 
old one, at 2 o'clock, and has given much satisfaction to all that have seen it, as 
far as I have heard. I am pleased with its form, and have no doubt it will sat- 
isfy the public mind. 

Mr. Clay (who was then speaker of the House), says it is wrong that there 
should be no charge in your bill for making the flag. If pay for that will be 
acceptable, on being informed, I will procure it. Do not understand me as in- 
tending to wound the feelings of Mrs. Reid, nor others who may have given aid 
in the business, and please accept my thanks to her and them and accept the 
same for yourself. 

Yours in haste, with esteem, P. H. WENDOVER. 

Mrs. Reid's name and those of the young ladies who assisted her 
were worked on this flag. The deceased was in the sixty-second 
year of her age, and had been on a visit to one of her sons in the 
West, whence she lately had gone to Wheeling, to superintend the 
erection of a monument over the grave of her eldest son there. 
The deceased leaves a .devoted family and a large circle of person- 
al freinds in this city, by whom she was deeply beloved. 

We close this correspondence with communica- 
tions from Rev. Drs. Rankin and Osgood, one 
relating to the remuneration of the families who 
suffered loss by the burning of the town — the other 
giving important notes of its church history. 



97 



A list of the persons who suffered by the enemy in 
burning the town of Fairfield, on the 7th and 8th 
days of July, 1779, and had their taxes abated by 
the Committee appointed by the General Assembly 
for that purpose : 



Anthony Annibil, 
David Annibil, 
Elijah Abel, 
George Allen, - 
David Allen, 
Eben Bartram, 
John Allen, 
Nehemiah Buddington, 
Andrew Bulkley, 
James Bulkley, 
Walter Buddington, 
Peter Burr, 
Samuel Beers, 
Joseph Beers, - 
Abigail Burr, 
David Burr, 
William Buddington, - 
David Burr, 
Wakeman Burr, - 
Samuel Burr, 
Job Bartram, 
Priscilla Burr, 
Thaddeus Burr, - 
David Beers, 
Ann Dimon, 
William Dimon, 
Elizabeth Gold, - 
Peter Wendzich, 
David Jennings, - 
Isaac Jarvis, - 
Moses Jennings, 



List, 1781. List, 1782. 

£^'^- £^°- 7- 6 

18. 34-12. o 

30.12. 28.11. 6 

- 32,' 7- 6 28.11. 6 
56. 8. 3 77. 2. 6 

- 44.11 42.15 
18. 6. 6.18 

- 23. 21. 
20. 29. 

20. 21. 
23- 5- 24.15 
76. I. 6 81. 7 
55. 2. 6 60. 8. 6 

- 3I-I9- 37-I9- o 

3.12. 3. 8. 

22.10. 28. 6 

21. 21. 
4. 4. 

25. 21. 

42.17. 6 44-I7- 6 

II. 12. 7 6. II. 19 

24. o. 6 32. 6. 6 

145. I. 4 167.16. 6 

55. 2. 6 62. 2. 6 

26.19. 25. 

51. 6. 60. 2. 

48. 8. 9 39. I. 6 

- 22. 8. 27. 8. 
39. 6. 51.18. 

- 43. 9. 22.66. 
70. 5. 62.18. 6 



98 



Abigail Jennings, 
Stephen Jennings, 
Jeremiah Jennings, - 
Lathrop Lewis, - 
Sturges Lewis, 
Jonathan Lewis, - 
Hezekiah Nicholls, - 
Thos. T. Nicholls, 
Eleazer Osborn, Jr., 
Marble Osborn, - 
Daniel Osborn, 
John Parsons, 
Nathaniel Parsons, 
John Parritt, 
Samuel Penfield, - 
John Robertson, 
Samuel Rowland, - 
Andrew Rowland, 
Samuel Squier, 
John Smedley, 
Seth Sturges, - - - 
Joseph Squier, - 
Thomas Staples, 
Ebenezer Sturges, 
John Squier, Jr., 
Judson Sturges, - 
Joseph Sturges (children), 
Jonathan Sturges, 
Samuel Squier, 
Hezekiah Sturges, 
Samuel Sturges, 
Samuel Smedley, 
Joseph Smith, 
Eliphalet Thorp, 
Ansel Truby, - 
Isaac Tucker, 
Stephen Thorp, 
John Turney, 
Eben Wakeman, 



List, 1781. List, 1782. 

- £a- ^2.14. 9 

76. 2. 96.06. 

- 40- 5- 56-10. 
40.10. 48.10. 

- 72.19 -6 73. 7. 6 
130.19. 6 132.12. 6 

54.19. 6 60.11. 

20.15. 19. 3- 6 

- 12. 5 

30. 6. 6. 20. 2. 2 
96. 5. 9. 74. o. 6 

18. 21. 

19. 5 r- 5 
24. 23. 

52. 8. 3. 54. 8. 3 

26. 39. 

- 35- 13* 5916. 3 
48. 3. 91.16. 7 

• 18. 21. 
87.12 87.12. 

■ 44. 7. 6 51-IO- 6 

25I4- 35- I- 

74.16. d^. 4. 
24.16. 

• 37- 5- 6 38.17 
63. I. 71. 2 

31. 16.6 35.13. 6 
99. 2. 137. 18. II 
85. 4.6 85.18.6 

157- 4- 142. 5- 

- 13. 4. 12. 6. 

I3I9- I3I9- 

40.14.6 40. 5. 6 

30. 4. 31.14. 

19.10. 28. o. I 
18. 

- 30- 4- 3I-T4- 
61. 1.6 58. 2. 6 

- 99.18. 67. 8. 6 



99 





List, 1781. 


List, 178 


2. 


Andrew Wakeman, 


^124 17- 


^116. 4. 


6 


Jabez Thorp, 


- 52-I3-6 


60. 8. 


6 


Isaac Turney, 


34. 8. 


37- 8. 




Reuben Burr, 


- 27. 2. 


31- 3- 


9 


Wakeman Burrittt 




85.11. 





John Williams, Jr., 


I. 4. 


27- 5- 




Wright White, - 


4- 


31- 




John Mason, 


25.10. 


28. 8. 




Thos. H. Wakeman, - 


- 


6.17. 


6 


GREEN'S 


FARMS. 






Sarah Andrews, - 


£ 8-IO. 


£ 7-14 




Abraham Andrews, 


72. 0. 6 


69. 0. 


3 


George Patterson 


21. 


21. 




Walter Carson, 


9- 


13.18. 


I 


Nathan Godfrey, 


62. 8.6 


93-I5- 


3 


Ebenezer Jessup, - 


- 141- 3- 


101.19. 


9 


Moss Kent, 


161. 


105. 8. 




Eunice Morehouse, 


- 95- 6. 6 


84. 




Eben Morehouse, 


III 6. 6 


91.17. 


3 


Gruman Morehouse, 


21.14. 


43- 




Samuel Smith, - 


21. 


27. 2. 


6 


Gideon Morehouse, 


- 45-66. 


35-i6. 


6 


Jesup Wakeman, 


32. 5- 9 






John Morehouse, - 


- 57-14. 

tliia ciim nf 


64.18. 


6 



year 1781. The sum of ^4,088.12 to be apportioned to the 
sufferers of said town. 



F7^oni Rev. Dr. Osgood : 

ECCLESIASTICAL NOTES. 

There are good materials for a history of the 
Church and Clergy of Fairfield, but these materials are 
very fragmentary, and they have never been brought 
together. Chief among the historical discourses are 
those by the Rev, Dr. Atwater, on Thanksgiving 
Day, November 28, 1839, ^'^'^ by the Rev. Dr. Ran- 
kin, on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1870, and 
by the Rev. N. E. Cornwall, on August 10, 185 1. The 
Rev. B. J. Relyea, on the 26th of October, 1865, 
gave a valuable discourse upon the history of the 
Green's Farm Congregational Church, which seceeded 
from the old Fairfield Parish in 1715, and the Rev. 
Henry B. Smith delivered an elaborate historical 
sermon in 1876, on the 150th anniversary of the 
Greenfield Hill Congregational Church, which was 
founded in 1726. 

Dr. Atwater gives a careful account of the pastors 
of the old Church until his own ministry, who had 
then been eight in number, beginning with the Rev. 
John Jones, the minister who brought an Oxford 
education to this frontier settlement, and who had 
tried to find a home in Concord, Mass., but left that 
place for Fairfield with a considerable part of his 
congregation, on account of "the poverty and mean- 
ness of Concord, together with the badness and 
wetness of the meadows." His successors were as 
follows, after his death in 1664 : 



I02 

Rev. Samuel Wakeivian, . 1 665-1 692. 

Rev. Joseph Webb, . . 1692-1732. 

Rev, Noah Hobart, . . 1 732-1 773. 

Rev. Andrew Eliot, . . " 1 774-1805. 

Rev. Heman Humphrey, . 1807-18 17. 

Rev. Dr. Hevyit, . . . 1818-1827. 

Rev. Mr. Hunter, . . . 1828-1833. 

Since Dr. Atwater's removal to Princeton, the old 
parish has had the services of Dr. Willis Lord, Rev. 
Alexander McLean and Rev. Dr. Rankin, whose 
coming retirement from his post is to take place in 
October. 

The Episcopal Church in Fairfield has an honor- 
able history since the consecration of its first edifice, 
Nov. 10, 1725, with a discourse by the famous Dr. 
Samuel Johnson, afterwards President of Kino-'s 
College, New York City. In 1827, the Rev. Henry 
Caner was appointed missionary to Fairfield, and 
remained here till 1747, when he went to King's 
Chapel, Boston, where he was rector in 1776, when, 
with the British army, he left his post for Halifax, at 
the time of the evacuation of Boston. The second 
Episcopal Church edifice was burned in 1779, ^s 
stated by Dr. Rankin, and the third edifice that was 
built on Mill Plain in i 790, stood until the transfer 
of the services to the new Trinity Church edifice at 
Southport, where regular worship was begun by Rev. 
William Shelton in 1828. St. Paul's Church, now in 
Fairfield, began as a distinct parish in 1854, and it 



103 

is not the successor, except In Its Episcopal order, 
of the old Trinity parish of 1725. 

The ministers of St. Paul's Church have been the 
Rev. Messrs. Leffingwell, Stimson, Hyde, Mackie, 
and Rev. James K. Lombard, the present rector. 

It is Interesting to remember, that the Rev. Phllo 
Shelton began his services as lay reader In Trinity 
Church, Fairfield, in 1779, and had been rector for 
forty years at the time of his death, February 27, 
1825, aged seventy-one. He was ordained by Bishop 
Seabury, at Middletown, August 3, 1785, at the first 
ordination ever held by an American bishop. He 
was succeeded by his son, the Rev. William Shelton, 
who went to St. Paul's Church, Buffalo, 1829, where 
he is still rector. Thus it appears, as an Intelligent 
lady remarked, that the Episcopal Church In America 
has been served one hundred years by father and son 
from the honored Shelton family. 

It is worthy of note that there was close connection 
in early times between our Fairfield Churches and 
Boston and Cambrldg-e culture. Several Fairfield 
ministers were graduates of Cambridge before and 
after Yale Callege came Into being, and the brilliant 
Dr. Horace Holley, who made such a figure as 
the minister of Hollls Street Church, Boston, was 
for three years the eloquent and successful pastor of 
the Greenfield Hill Parish, from which he went to 
Boston in 1809, ^^^ ^^^^ afterwards, for nine years, 
till 1827, President of Transylvania University, 
Kentucky. 



io4 

It is a fact worth recording, that the first meeting 
of the old Congregational Parish, the Prime Ancient 
Society of Fairfield, distinct from town meeting, was 
held, according to the record, on December 19, 1727. 

The Roman Catholic Church of St. Thomas, was 
consecrated about 25 years ag6, under charge of 
Rev. Thomas J. Synnot, of Bridgeport, and it has 
been a distinct parish about three years. 

THE LAST WORD. 

There is good hope of the awakening of public 
spirit in Fairfield as the consequence of the late 
Memorial occasions. The celebration of 1876 was 
followed by the establishment of the Fairfield Mem- 
orial Library, and this Commemoration has led to 
the formation of the Fairfield Village Improvement 
Society, for the health, ornament and general wel- 
fare of the charming old town. 




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